---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 20:27:50 -0700
From: Linda Russell Lewis <cityslic(a)ix.netcom.com>
Reply-To: USGenWeb-SE-L(a)rootsweb.com
To: USGenWeb-SE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [USGenWeb-SE-L] Archives Suggestion
Resent-Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 20:29:11 -0700 (PDT)
Resent-From: USGenWeb-SE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Below is a message that the Archives file managers are very strongly in
favor of, (100% so far) and it has been sent to the Board:
We are still discussing it.
Cathy Burnsed wrote:
Hey everyone,
Here's a thought, but it's one that would require concessions by both
sides, not just "us" or "them." If someone who is subscribed to the
other
list would pass this on, I would appreciate it.
The concession by "us" (Census I) would be that the File Managers would
relinquish maintenance of the census portion of each county's TOC to the
Census II project. This is what am thinking of:
A researcher wants to look at records for Leon County, Florida, goes to
the USGenWeb Archives table of contents, and clicks on Florida, then Leon
County. So far they are using pages that I, as an Archives File Manager,
create and update. When they get to the Leon County page, there are no
actual links to the files, but rather just record types (census, cemetery,
marriages, etc.). So the researcher decides they want to look at Leon
County census files, and clicks on "Census." It then goes to a Table of
Contents type page** that is actually maintained by the Florida Census
volunteer from Census II. The Census II volunteer is not only in charge of
recruiting volunteers, but also editing and formatting the completed files,
as well as uploading them to the proper directory. No notification to the
Florida Archives FM is even required, since the TOC will be updated as well
by the Census II volunteer.
** Note: the *TOC* for the county census directories could be located
anywhere, not necessarily in the same directory as the other TOCs.
The concession by "them" (Census II) would be that they agree to move the
census files back into the "Archives" directory structure so that files are
included in the Archives search engine, and so that researchers bypassing
the TOCs entirely will still be able to locate census files when using the
ftp directories to navigate the site. Also, to make use of the partial and
complete census files and indexes and various other census files that have
been donated thus far outside of the Census Project's guidelines. They
would be linked to just as any other census file, but it would be
understood that once an "official" transcription became available, that the
links to partial files may be removed. One other small detail would be
that some states have state census files, and they would need to be
accomodated, as well, on the Census TOC.
Which leaves us with Census I volunteers for each state who may or may not
be the same person as the Census II volunteer. In cases where they are two
different people, it may be that one was just volunteering to "fill-in"
during the crisis, and doesn't really care to continue. In other cases
where both want to continue, they would need to agree to be
co-coordinators, perhaps splitting the counties within each state
alphabetically so each one handles 1/2 of the counties.
This is just the beginning of an idea...and I would appreciate if others
could point out shortcomings and potential problems, as well as build on
this idea. Why won't it work? What could we do to make it work?
Your ideas, please!
Thanks,
Cathy Burnsed
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