Call it a coincidence, but just the other day I found this newspaper clipping from the January 3, 2007 edition of The Alliance Review in a batch of papers that were donated to the Historical Society.
Why did it catch my eye? Because that is me in the picture! Yes, with darker hair and contact lenses. Why was it a coincidence? Because I am still working on the backend of The Alliance Index and we just launched a new version of the Index this past week. It’s responsive (you can use it as easily on a phone as a computer) and it is in a format which will let us update it more easily in the future.
The original index to The Alliance Review was on 3×5 index cards, then entered into a series of text formats and proprietary databases. The new database has been built with the future in mind and will be easier to maintain. In the 2007 article, the index contained 1871-1875 and 1989 to present and 150,000 entries. Today’s index includes 1871-1876 and 1934 to present and is continuously being updated to close the gap. In addition to The Alliance Review articles are scrapbooks of newspaper articles maintained by Rodman Library and a database of Catholic Cemetery burials as recorded by St. Joseph Church in Alliance.
Instructions on how to order articles online from Rodman Library are available on the site but you can also go to the main library to find the articles on the microfilm or in the scrapbooks on your own.
The Alliance Index is available online at https://allianceindex.com. Contact Rodman Public Library for additional information.