Library's hookup with NCLive offers remote access to county

The Alleghany County Library has joined the network of other public libraries across the state in a project that will give the community access to a wide range of information and services via the Internet.

The statewide electronic library project, titled North Carolina for Virtual Education (NCLive), provides access to electronic information and print resources housed in participating libraries statewide.

In order to gain access to the program, all you need is a library card, according to local librarian Debbie Brewer. Library patrons are given a card with a username and a password, which are updated periodically.

The patron must key in the information to gain access to the site at home or at the local library, which is viewable at www.nclive.org. Until recently, NCLive was only available through Internet access at participating libraries' sites.

At the present, libraries included in this project are the University of North Carolina libraries, community college libraries, independent college and university libraries, the state library and 75 public library systems that are serving all 100 counties.

A steering committee composed of nine members are in charge of the NCLive project.

There is one leadership position and one library director position from each of the participating libraries as well as a representative that is appointed by the governor.

The goal of this collaboration is to provide access to an unlimited range of information, and make it available to every North Carolinian. According to the web site, NCLive offers on-line access to complete articles from over 5,500 newspapers, journals and magazines; two encyclopedias and an index for more than 10,000 periodical titles.

What makes this website unique is that all of the information is gathered together in one large, easy to use, database.

Users can search through many different types of resources for a particular subject. These resources are available on an unlimited basis with no restriction to the number of searches an individual can perform. Some of the resources available cannot be accessed anywhere else (other than the NCLive site) free of charge.

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

Email: allnews@ls.net