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The Heritage & Archive Centre (H & A) is officially a Community Access Program (CAP) site under the umbrella of the Community Opportunity and Innovation Network (COIN) in Peterborough.

So what is CAP you ask? CAP is a Federal Government program to provided free (or almost free) “Internet Access” to the general public. The program was established in 1995 and has been available locally at the Galway, Cavendish & Harvey Library both in Buckhorn and at the Cavendish Br library, plus the Buckhorn Community Centre almost since the beginning. CAP is a key component of the federal government's “Connecting Canadians” initiative, giving residents of rural, remote, and urban communities across Canada affordable access to the Internet. This provides Canadians with a new way to communicate, learn, and do business in today's knowledge-based economy. We are one of approximately 8,800 internet access sites across Canada.

But, what does all this mean to the H & A Centre? Each CAP location brings it’s own unique flavor to the program and ours will embrace the Societies’ main Objective -: The identifying and preservation of historical information and records pertaining to the early life of local residence. CAP is one more tool available to the society to achieve our objective while attract the general public into the centre either to utilize our services or to become directly involved.

Already we see the initial benefits of the program with installation at the centre of much needed used and new computer equipment / programs along with technical support from reboot North, Peterborough. We now have 4 personal computers, three of which have large 17” screens. There are printers and scanners available for public usage. In addition to being connected to the internet, each computer has access to a large inventory of internal records and a cemetery database consisting of over ¼ million burials from 700 plus cemeteries.

As you can appreciate this program does not come without a price. My pappy use to say, “You don’t get nothing for nothing”. Not very good English but the truth never the less. To fulfill our side of the bargain the H & A Center must be open to the general public (which we are). We can’t charge for this service, or not charge more than our cost. In other words, we can’t make a profit from the program. We must create a website, (which we had planned to do). It is intended the website be informative and used to enhance quality of life, facilitate cultural development and heritage preservation, (one of the societies objectives) accelerate communication between individuals, expedite interaction between the citizen and government at all levels, improve economic performance, provide new educational opportunities, and provide youth opportunities. We must also initiate internet training programs. All activities/ideals supported by the society.

In a nutshell what does this all mean to you, members of the Society and to the general public?

Free internet access and the establishing of your own e-mail account.
Training on how to use a computer.
Training on how to use the internet (primarily for Genealogy purposes).
Advise and support in the purchase of a computer for home use. (We have used PC’s for sale).
We can discuss with you and members of your family, especially the younger ones, the safe use of the internet and “Chat Rooms”

Plan a visit soon to the Heritage and Archive Centre. The volunteers that give of their personal time at the centre on a regular bases would be glad to show you around. We are open from 10 to 2 on Sat and Wed, or by special appointment.

Handy Link to familiarize yourself with the CAP program and some of its unique features.