tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post953229158141726548..comments2024-03-21T19:08:05.737-07:00Comments on Genealogy's Star: What is left to digitize?James Tannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-78274348480228893532012-01-22T07:42:08.504-07:002012-01-22T07:42:08.504-07:00The greatest challenge with the larger Repositorie...The greatest challenge with the larger Repositories (i.e., not your local small Historical Society that has no funds to digitize) is the lack of qualified individuals to do the work in conjunction with a lack of funding. The reality is you can't simply slap a 17th or 18th century document on a flatbed scanner (or worse, even hint to put it through an automatic feeder). Archival material needs to be handled by Archives professionals. Sadly, too many Archives aren't funded to provide regular services to researchers much less to spend the time it takes to digitize material. <br /><br />As Linda Ottery said, it takes a philanthropic act of kindness to ensure than there is funding. Perhaps, if all of us who are genealogists, historians, family researchers, etc. all did a little estate planning and added a small donation to a local repository in our Wills, maybe 'someday' would come a lot sooner?Laura Cosgrove Lorenzanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02794581991087280753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-86952048609186351172012-01-21T17:08:04.209-07:002012-01-21T17:08:04.209-07:00And that's only in the USA! There are many oth...And that's only in the USA! There are many other countries trying to keep up with the digitisation process. I live in Australia, and the National Archives of Australia, along with the State archives, the many University Archives and State Libraries and museums are often constricted by finances; often resorting to volunteers or gaining the funding through philanthropic organisations. And that doesn't even take into account the many records held by local authorities and societies.<br /><br />Through the 1990's I worked on a project cataloguing photographs at my State Library. The project to digitise and catalogue this fabulous resource only became a reality through the benefactors of one such philanthropic organisation. So often it is resources and $$ are what is holding many of these projects backluckyllamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16332811544831993907noreply@blogger.com