NEW-ZEALAND-L Archives

Archiver > NEW-ZEALAND > 2005-06 > 1119419341


From: "Heather Higgins" <>
Subject: Re: Re Help at the Panmure Centre
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 17:49:01 +1200
References: <KOEAJIOJHECKNANPCPFFEEDIDHAA.graham.lewis@optusnet.com.au>


Hear, hear!!! Well said Graham.
cheers
Heather
----- Original Message -----
From: "Graham Lewis" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 2:26 AM
Subject: Re Help at the Panmure Centre


> Some listers seem to be under a misapprehension here! All the people "on
> duty" at Panmure are volunteer members - they'll be as helpful as you want
> them to be. I live in Sydney but have managed to visit the Panmure rooms
> twice in the last few years. I found those on duty very welcoming and
> helpful when I needed it, but not pushy or intrusive when I simply wanted
> to
> explore and browse.
>
> That's the way it should be at any genie society I think and NZSG is no
> exception - in my limited experience at Panmure, and on other occasions
> when
> I've had cause to seek help by email or snail mail over the last 30 years
> or
> so of membership.
>
> But it's not unreasonable to expect a visitor to show a bit of gumption
> and
> ask for help if it's needed - volunteers at most societies are not trained
> in telepathy and I'm sure that applies at Panmure!
>
> It seems to me there's nothing broken at Panmure, or at NZSG generally.
> No
> need to change the basic purpose of this list - it works fine - listers
> helping other listers. The journal alone is worth the full value of the
> subscription, and much better value than most other family history
> journals.
>
> I'm sure that ideas for new publications would be very welcome here. But
> publications don't just happen - they need a huge amount of work, apart
> from
> the work needed in compiling the index or whatever. The NZSG Council also
> presumably needs to be satisfied that there's a market for the product -
> that it's worth laying out the cash and effort on it, rather than on some
> other project or publication. The indexers are very important people, but
> their index doesn't simply fall onto a CD at that point - there's a lot of
> hard work still needed. I think Council does a pretty good job on that -
> the NZSG Index is an excellent example of how widely disseminated indexes
> gathered by people throughout NZ have become more accessible by being
> searchable in one fell swoop.
>
> Sure the NZSG makes some money out of it, and so they should. But so do
> all
> the contributing groups/branches, whose work is suddenly exposed to a much
> wider audience, giving them the opportunity to earn a bit of cash to
> expand
> their own local collections, by providing more detailed info and
> photocopies
> in respect of search results that seem to be of interest. Quite apart
> from
> those financial rewards, it must be very satisfying to all indexers to
> know
> their work is being shared so much more widely.
>
> Graham Lewis
> Sydney
>
> ______________________________


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