http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,605153189,00.html
Friday, September 9, 2005
LDS to put microfilm in vaults on Internet
Huge effort planned to index family history data
By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret Morning News
Ever wonder what's inside those secured vaults, owned by the LDS Church,
positioned
high inside the granite walls of Little Cottonwood Canyon?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is working toward allowing
anyone with Internet access to learn more than they've ever known before
about the
information contained on 2 million-plus rolls of microfilm housed there.
Currently,
the church is compiling searchable indexes to that information and will
eventually
make it available for free through an automated database on the Internet.
The church excavated the vaults containing those records on property it
purchased
in the 1960s, providing a safe repository during the height of the Cold War
for
birth, marriage, death and census information it considers essential for the
salvation
of mankind after death. Now church leaders seek to make the information more
readily
available to the world.
"The goal is to create (Internet-accessible) indexes to all the films
we have in the vault. That's a long-term process and that's a lot of films,"
according to Paul Nauta, manager of public affairs for church's
FamilySearch.org
Web site. "We've not announced when people will begin to start seeing"
the indexes.
Those attending the annual Federation of Genealogical Societies' conference
this week at the Salt Palace will get a "sneak preview" of the church's
plans. As the project progresses over time, indexes to records from 110
nations
previously stored on microfilm will become accessible to virtually anyone,
anywhere, through the Internet via the touch of a few keystrokes.
"We're showing people how we'll be creating indexes from those films.
Sometime in the future we'll ask people to help us create the indexes and
make them
publicly available, and little by little we'll start to index the films from
the
vault like we did with the 1880 (U.S.) Census.
"The challenge now is it takes a lot of people and a lot of time"
to create such an index. "Currently, you have to look at images on paper or
burn them on a CD and distribute those to index the data. We're moving the
whole
process to the Internet and this is a prototype of what that might look
like. .
. . That's what the biggest buzz is at the conference."
Conference attendees are using a lab at the Salt Palace equipped with a
number
of computers to demonstrate the new automated database. The microfilm
information
includes birth, marriage, death and census records.
New advances in indexing software utilities and applications mean the LDS
Church "now has the ability to produce lots of indexes faster," than it
did with previous databases it has digitized, including the 1880 U.S.
Census. Making
that database available online was a 12-year project, using tens of
thousands of
volunteers.
In the future, the new technology "will provide automated indexing"
for an ever-increasing number of microfilms "so people can readily search it
from their homes."
As the number of family history researchers continues to grow â" one study
showed 40 percent of Americans have done research on their family history
and another
said 90 percent have expressed interest â" demand for online indexes that
simplify
searching for ancestors has soared, he said.
How much time will it take to digitize all the films in the vault?
"Let's put it this way, it will depend on how much volunteer help we
get," Nauta said. "I think we can digitize the films to be indexed to
stay up with demand, but much will depend on how many volunteers we can
generate
worldwide to index their records of interest. If, in a couple of years, we
could
get a million indexers worldwide, we could put a big dent" in the massive
undertaking.
The indexing demonstration and other planned improvements to the popular
FamilySearch.org
Web site are drawing standing-room-only crowds at the convention. The
changes "will
make great strides to simplify and increase the success of the family
history experience,"
he said.
Just when the first indexed information from the microfilms will become
available
online has not yet been announced. "We don't want to be swamped with people
before we're ready to handle it," Nauta said.
The new developments won't make more than 5,000 small family history centers
housed in LDS chapels worldwide obsolete. Previously, those looking for
information
contained on the microfilms stored in the church's Granite Mountain Records
Vault
had to request that copies of information on the films be sent to their
local center.
At some point in the future, that likely won't be necessary any longer, he
said,
but "that will continue to be a role for a long time.
"Family history centers will continue to be a mainstay" for accessing
information on the microfilms for some time to come.
As more of those records become digitized and indexes become available, the
role of the local centers, he said, "will probably change. Some people have
no Internet access, and they'll use them for that. The role of the family
history
centers will evolve over time to help people get started" with their
research
because "many people don't know how to do that. They will become more
fundamental
to help people get and stay organized, and to answer questions they have
doing their
research."
Many of those in town to attend the conference are also making use of the
church's renowned Family History Library, less than a block from the Salt
Palace.
Hours have been extended to accommodate guests, with the library open from 8
a.m.
to 10:30 p.m. through Saturday.
"It's an exciting time for family history," Nauta said. "Those
just developing this kind of research as a hobby will never have any
appreciation
for how far this industry has evolved, even in the past 10 years."