The Allen County Public Library is the first library in the world to roll out Vintage Aerial, Library Edition, a genealogical tool that patrons can use for free, officials said.

The library and the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana on Wednesday launched Vintage Aerial, Library Edition, with a celebratory event with live demonstrations and time to ask the resource’s leaders questions. The digital resource offers access to thousands of historical aerial images.

“Users can explore these images to discover personal, family and community stories, making it an invaluable tool for genealogists, historians and anyone interested in local history,” the library said in a news release.

Vintage Aerial has 54,000 historical aerial images from Allen County and more than 19 million from across the country, the release said. The images are from the 1960s through the early 2000s.

Vintage Aerial, based in Maumee, Ohio, says on its website that it is designed to capture “a time in American history when life revolved around rural communities and small farms.”

“Our common American heritage happened in that time, in those rural communities,” the website says. “We want to share the period preserved in these photos, and the memories they represent, with the generations who came too late to experience it firsthand.”

The resource can be accessed by patrons at the library’s 14 locations. It is included in the Genealogy Center’s on-site databases.

The Library Edition is free and has more robust searching features than the Vintage Aerial website, Curt Witcher, director of special collections, said in an email.

“We are excited to be working with Vintage Aerial to bring an amazing historical resource to the genealogists we serve,” Witcher said in a statement. “As the first library to offer this extensive database, we are pleased to assist patrons in discovering the historical context of their families’ lives and help them find more of their stories.”