How To Use Oklahoman Archives & Jerry Lee

[Doug Loudenback]

For those of you who might want to use the Oklahoman's on-line archives for free, by use of your Metropolitan Library Card whether you are at a library or not, I've posted a fairly detailed "how to" article here: Doug Dawgz Blog: Using The Oklahoman Archives & Jerry Lee Tyner

I won't detail that here. This article was spawned because of the great kindness extended to me by Jerry Lee Tyner, a docent at the Cowboy Hall, this past Sunday, when he invited my wife and me to be his guests there. He didn't know how to use the Oklahoman's archives via MLS, and that's why I wrote the article, as a modest return for his favor. The article is about him, as well. Here is a pic that I took of him on Sunday ...



The article describes more about him. I wouldn't ordinarily get "personal" like this, but I learned that he was hospitalized today with very serious heart issues. If you would think about him and/or pray a prayer or two for him, you'd be an angel (or something else good). Somehow, although I profess to not being particularly religious, I have a sense that it might be helpful.

I apologize for the personal indulgence.

[Joe Kimball]

Thank you so much for posting that!

Upon the help given by Millie in another thread, I decided to renew my library card (library accounts are canceled after two years of inactivity, apparently), only to have a librarian tell me that you must access the Oklahoman archives in-library. This assumption upon her word was reinforced by my using Firefox, which apparently doesn't play well with the Archives yet. Imagine my surprise when I was able to access from home with these instructions! Maybe she thought I was talking about the actual microfiche or something. I was confused, since the Oklahoman is paid all the same by the library (or otherwise endowment), I assume.

I just had a ball searching around, and found out more about city street name history that I was curious about. Aside from rather ephemeral uses as this, what a valuable resource!

[Doug Loudenback]

Thanks, Free Won't. It certainly is a valuable resource!

As to the Firefox issue, each database external to the library uses its own software, and the Oklahoman's "Olive" software just doesn't work well with Firefox so you do need to use IE Explorer to use the Oklahoman's archives. I have no experience with Opera or other browser software, so I can only speak to IE Explorer and Firefox.

That's not so for all the external databases that are accessed via the MLS website, though. I've certainly not looked at all of the databases, not even very many, but one other that is great is the Sanborn Insurance Map Company database. This one DOES work fine with Firefox. Instructions about how to use it are in this article, about mid-way down: Doug Dawgz Blog: Okc Street Map History

Those maps are incredible, not only for old streets but for buildings built on those streets and sometimes additional information. For example, here's a crop (and resized from the original) of a part of the Edmond 1894 Sanborn map ...



The remaining parts of the Edmond 1894 map are in my Photobucket account, here: DougLoudenback/edmond - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting. There actually are only 2 pages of the 1894 Edmond map but I've cropped and resized each page into quadrants (a, b, c and d) for internet use.

The maps are high resolution, initially contained in PDF files, but you can extract those images to TIFF files and each page is about 5087 x 5913 px. You can then deal with them in your graphic software program.

I'd be interested to know your experience with the virus disabling issue discussed in my article, if you are not using Norton. I think it's time that I switched virus programs, the nuisance (if not the temporary absence of virus protection) to log on to the Oklahoman archives being one of my reasons to consider another virus program. If you are not using Norton and you didn't have to temporarily disable your virus protection, I'd like to know what virus program you are using.

[Joe Kimball]

Certainly. I haven't used Norton in a while.

I use AVG Free - Download AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition for Windows XP and Vista . Now, the LinkScanner is a bit of a resource hog (and needless, really, if you're a prudent surfer), but you can easily disable that. A good way to do so in Firefox is to merely disable the add-on that it inserts in your add-on list (Tools >> Add-ons). I can't remember how that works in IE. Doing so on the software end makes the toolbar icon display in an error state, which is distracting when everything else is up-to-date.

I've taken a look at the Sanborn maps as well---very interesting! About the best maps I've seen. It's a bit of a challenge, though, with finding stuff in what is now NW Oklahoma City---the maps don't go that far, of course. I'll need to see if there are others for Bethany and the like.

[Doug Loudenback]

Thanks!

[Doug Loudenback]

I'm glad to report that Jerry Lee survived his heart procedures and hopefully he'll hit the ground running after a recuperation period. This is a man who loves life, knows his history, and loves every minute of it!