I agree with you Heather. I think our purpose is to provide information. Providing information does not mean only doing transcriptions. I see our sites as gateways to point genealogists in the direction of where they can find information regarding their relatives in the county that we sponsor. If we have the time to do transcriptions, that's great. However, I don't have time and this is probably the same for many other people. I try to contribute small transcriptions that I can do quickly rather than the huge ones that there is no way I can take the time to do. (Which is a good idea as the small ones tend to get lost. :) ) But if my site has a wealth of links and information on how to obtain genealogical information, does that make it less of a site that might have a few links and 5 transcribed cemeteries? I recently won an award for Tom Green County in Texas and was also showcased on the Dear Myrtle radio show as being an excellent gateway to information. I feel proud of that work. I think it is important that my users can find the information quickly and easily. Cheers everyone! Kimm > -----Original Message----- > From: Heather DeGeorge [mailto:heatherdegeorge@writeme.com] > Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 10:00 AM > To: STATE-COORD-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [STATE-COORD] What's our purpose? What makes a "useful" site? > > > > All this talk about soliciting funds to further the efforts > brings me to a rather relevant concern... > > About a month ago I was told by a reporter that one of my county > sites looked like any other and "nothing special"--which he > determined by comparing mine to 2 others (this was his total > exposure to such sites and genealogy in general). I was > thoroughly infuriated with him because the site in question, > while it had little or no transcriptions, pointed users to TONS > of information resources--some on the net which had > transcriptions; some on the net that provided information on > topics or how to order records; and some that were locations, > instructions, and contact information on getting to original > source records. Most of these I had actually used myself or > contacted the places to ensure I knew what was available and if > there was a fee associated with it, etc.--all stated for the > user. I also noted (for non-online resources) how to best get > the research objective met by having contacted those places > myself and asking how they'd prefer the researcher to deal with them. > > As someone who researches locally and not locally, I find that > this information is infinitely useful. Finding the location of > the primary resource is half the battle won. Knowing what > libraries exist--especially those devoted to special interests > (like race, religion, industry, etc.). > > I think it's unfair to say that only transcriptions provide value > and that pointing to resources does not--especially since > transcriptions are subject to human error and incompletions. I'd > rather go to the source--as many researchers would--and therefore > I value the resource location more than the transcription. Not > to say I don't appreciate transcriptions, I just appreciate more > the original/primary source location. > > So what's the purpose here? I thought it was to help users who > were looking for their ancestor's in XYZ county? Showing them > all of the information that exists there for their use? > Transcriptions were a bonus--and something I leave to the > archives (which I link out to in addition to providing the > original source location of the records transcribed--especially > since few resources are transcribed in total). > > Would love to hear everyone else's thoughts... > > --Heather Jones DeGeorge > -- > __________________________________________________________ > Sign-up for your own personalized E-mail at Mail.com > http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup > > CareerBuilder.com has over 400,000 jobs. Be smarter about your job search > http://corp.mail.com/careers > > --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003