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Archiver > GENBRIT > 1999-12 > 0944050818


From: "Guy Ingram" <>
Subject: Re: ref : 1901 census
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 23:20:18 +1100


Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake wrote:

| The secret to successful census transcription (and to most
industrial
| processes) is not Quality Control it is Quality Assurance. If you
don't
| know the difference, then let me assure you that effective QA in the
UK
| prisoner population is as likely as the Pope becoming a Methodist.

Barney - this was pitched at those who would like to 'set up a
partition to dissuade'. While I appreciate your making the
distinction, QA is not well known to those outside of management
circles, whereas many people have a concept of 'quality control' akin
to what we would like to see happen.

I share your concerns about the issues you mentioned in a response to
my first post on this issue (re your original post), and the scenarios
you depicted. However, I am not as well informed as you regarding the
procedures and systems that will be implemented in the prison/s and
would prefer to have the re-assurance (or otherwise) of hearing that
sort of information direct from the PRO or the contractor, DERA. I
would be very keen to hear what systems and expertise will be engaged
to ensure acceptable accuracy in the published index, what their
criterion for acceptable accuracy level was in the tender
specification, and how it will be determined that the contractor is
meeting that criterion.

I wrote:
| >Personally, I'd be more worried that a public outcry could see the
| >whole project being shelved so that some bureaucrat or politition
| >could save face. We wouldn't want to see that happen - surely?

and Barney replied:
| Frankly I'd love to see this. Force the PRO to make the films
available
| at reasonable cost to whoever wants to buy them, which is exactly
the
| situation with the 1891 on microfiche. Then you'll see that local
Family
| History Societies will make quality indexes from them. This is what
is
| now happening with the 1891 census and a good number of the earlier
| ones.

That is all very well for someone in London to say, however, you may
have noticed the enormous number of foreigners who visit the FRC, SOG
and PRO-Kew? They are just a lucky few who who get to share (at great
expense) all those wonderful centralised indices with the locals. Most
of us overseas can only dream about the ease with which someone in
your location can look up a census index, walk to the film and go
straight to the right place on the film (when there is an index).
Putting indexed UK census on the WWW is an effective way to provide
equitable access to the many thousands (very conservatively) of
genealogists around the world with UK ancestry who currently stumble
around in the dark, not to mention the many UK residents who have
limited access for a cornucopia of reasons.

Without belittling the superb and generous efforts of the volunteers
and societies that index the census for their locality, these quality
indices are not reaching the rest of the world, and often not even
other parts of the UK. Access to some of them, as you know, is
restricted to members of the owning society, or sometimes only to a
few select locations. Access from overseas for nearly any of the
published indices usually involves much searching, much greater cost
than a cumulative 50p per look mooted for the 1991, and an
extrordinary amount of time (and I can tell you from personal
experience that an existing index may not be located despite best
efforts)

I believe that the wider genealogy community has much to be gained
from seeing this project proceed - other major repositories will be
watching what happens with the Kew initiative very closely and I
expect there will be a flow-on effect if it is successful and
cost-effective. If we do have to cope with a slightly elevated level
of indexing errors it will still be far superior to what many of us
have now.

In the mean time, the PRO has made it quite clear that it is open to
consultation and there is a recent message on this forum detailing
their web-based invitation to participate. You can also write to

and let them know your concerns, offer suggestions, and ask questions.

| The current solution seeks to deny us access to the materials to
make
| good indexes, so as to preserve a state monopoly. This whole thing
is a
| hare-brained scheme dreampt up by a faceless bureaucrat with neither
| interest in, nor knowledge of, the needs of the genealogical
community.

If you say so, Barney. Did anyone notice on the PRO site that the
question of whether fiche &/or film would be available to individuals
&/or societies to purchase was still not finalised - why not nag them
about it? If enough interest is shown the PRO may see the financial or
other benefit of meeting a demand.
If indeed, this project is being conducted without any interest in or
knowledge of the needs of the genealogical community, this is surely a
good time to make our needs known, as one of the PROs largest client
groups.

Cheers - Guy

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