Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Local News Stories Can Be Accessed on Home Computer

The Prescott Community Freenet Association (PCFA), operator of PCFA.ORG, has announced that selected articles from each week's editions of The Nevada County Picayune and The Gurdon Times newspapers will be appear on PCFA.ORG.

John and Betty Ragsdale, owners of Ragsdale Printing Company, Inc., which publishes the two newspapers, are contributing the articles in support of the project.

Eddie Daniel, vice-chairman of PCFA, says one of PCFA.ORG's primary goals is to make available to the public a vast amount of information which can easily be accessed electronically.

"We want a strong emphasis on local, community, historial and heritage articles, Daniel said. "The articles from the Picayune and The Times are among the best possible community resources we could add, since they document our current history."

The PCFA.ORG system operator, Danny Stewart, obtains the files used to typeset the newspapers and converts them to the hypertext markup language (HTML) used by World Wide Web (WWW) browsers on the Internet. Through the Internet, anyone in the world can access the local newspapers by linking with PCFA.ORG with this uniform resource locators (URLs): http://www.pcfa.org/ and then selecting Local Newspapers. Web users may go directly to the newspaper by adding picayune/ or times/ to the URL.

The Freenet Association is working with other local organizations and plans to add many other resources in the coming weeks.

"Eventually, we want every organization, church and school to have their information on PCFA.ORG," Daniel said. We need one person from each organization to obtain a PCFA.ORG account and we'll show them how to make their information available."

The Internet connection for PCFA.ORG is made at Prescott Schools and is furnished by the Arkansas Public School Computer Network (APSCN). The schools are already beginning to add much information to PCFA.ORG.

Individuals may obtain accounts on PCFA.ORG and have access to the Internet. Applications are available by sending a self-addressed and stamped envelope to 615 Oak Street in Prescott, by picking up an application at Taylor's Grocery or Auto Parts and Supply (NAPA), or by calling PCFA.ORG by modem at 887-1842 and logging in as `new'.

There is no initial or on-going cost for a PCFA.ORG account.

The Freenet Association welcomes and actively solicits contributions to fund the major operating cost is telephone lines, which cost about $45 each per month.

Several local organizations and businesses are helping to underwrite the cost of the project, according to Stewart, who also serves as PCFA secretary-treasurer.

Tri-Service Club, General Telephone Company and the Prescott Lions Club are among the contributors. The Lions has challenged all other civic organizations and businesses to match its contribution. When plans are finalized with other sponsors, Stewart says those names will be announced.