Diane wrote,
A year ago UsGenWeb required counties to create and maintain query
pages,
today, all that is required is that a county provide a link to an outside
query service. Hence UsGenWEb will eventually not have any query data. The
query board services will have all the data. This is a new reason that
researcher will not need to visit the counties. One less source of data to
provide the researchers. Is this what UsGenWeb really wanted to have
happen. Is UsGenWEb going to be the gatherer of the data for an outside
service?
I regard GenConnect as just one more tool we can use to make it as easy as
possible for the outside user to find the information s/he wants. The
queries there are indexed and searchable, thus accessible more easily, and
to many more potential readers, than if they were just on my county pages.
The GenConnect system also frees me of a considerable amount of labor
necessary to keep queries up to date on my own county page, time I can
spend working on other improvements to the page.
I don't in ANY way see that this negates the value of the county page
itself, or limits the scope of the creativity and initiative of the
individual CC. I have a *lot* of material on my pages that isn't reflected
on the query boards; you do too. I provide a list of surname researchers,
distinct from the surnames indexed in the queries (and I see these as two
different functions); a page with links to individual web sites dealing
with families in my counties; information on publications relating to my
county; primary data of various kinds. Other counties provide other sorts
of things. Whatever they provide, a good county page is definitely worth
visiting. Each GenConnect query board provides a link back to the county
page, and the main NCGW index page gives links to the individual county
pages, not directly to the query board. People don't have trouble finding
the county pages, and if there is something there worth reading, they will
go back. Queries aren't everything, by any means.
I would even venture to guess that the county pages that are linked to
GenConnect might get more visitors than those that aren't, just because of
the central indexing. Somebody searches on a surname, finds a relevant
query, perhaps in a county they didn't realize was significant for them;
then links back to the county page to learn more about that county and find
other information.
I don't see how this can be bad.
You used the subject line "gradual changes in the project". Yes, this is a
change, but I think it's a significant improvement over the way we were
doing things a year ago. This whole project is less than three years old,
and it's grown phenomenally in that time. Of course it's going to develop,
and change. Why shouldn't it?
Elizabeth Harris
ncgen(a)mindspring.com
state coordinator for NCGenWeb:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgenweb/