Also - the cards are only 4 x 6 - we may not be talking huge 4 foot high etc foolscap size filing cabinets? Do we know the actual dimensions? Ros ----- Original Message ----- From: "GSS" <gss@beeb.net> To: <SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 10:09 AM Subject: Re: [SoG] WWI Medals reply from National Archives - Now a suggestion of what we could do > Instead of trying to think about EGMs etc could we be more practical and > think constructively about this situation. Could we not just work as a > combined set of volunteers (OK we are all SOG members otherwise we would not > be on this list) who agree that we and perhaps other family historians from > other lists, FHS, other organisations etc do something before time > disappears. > > First of all, I am wondering whether we have a couple of volunteers who > could be detailed to look into the problem and make a report so that an > informed decision could then be made. I am assuming that these volunteers > would be able to get access to these records, and could see for themselves > the scale of the problem. > > It seems to me that however much we want to preserve the original cards that > because of their vast size it just may not be practical. Therefore should > we be concentrating on trying to make sure that we have a record of all the > data found on the cards. The front has been dealt with, it is the > information on the back that we need to think about. > > Some of the issues that I feel should be in the report are as follows (I am > assuming that we accept the fact that we cannot keep them and just want to > preserve the info) > 1) have all the fronts been filmed and are we happy that as good a job has > been done as we could expect (perhaps not 100% but 99.9%) > 2) could we find enough volunteers to extract those cards that need extra > filming > 3) could we find enough storage for those extracted cards before we could > get them filmed > 4) would the NA be prepared to grant extra time for their storage until we > could get this extraction process in mind > 5) what about filming (the BerksFHS now has a book scanner that I am sure > could be used, I think there are now quite a few other FHSs with this sort > of equipment). > > I leave it at that for now and look forward to receiving feedback via the > list. (Please don't shoot me, if you disagree with my viewpoint I don't > mind, I am just trying to help). > > Gillian Stevens > Member of SOG, Events co-ordinator for BerksFHS > Data administrator for www.familyhistoryonline.net > > > > >