SOG-UK-L Archives

Archiver > SOG-UK > 1998-08 > 0902001766


From: Pete Finlay <>
Subject: Re: [SOG-UK-L] New ideas
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 21:02:46 +0100


In message <>, you write:
>If we are to get this mailing list to serve some useful purpose, we need
>some mail! So come on you lurkers, let's have some input.
>
>There are two areas in which we at the Society would like to hear your
>ideas.
>
>We are currently undertaking a study of future IT strategy and policy for
>the Society and if you have any ideas in this field, please let us have
>them. You may have thought of something which we haven't.

The only thing that springs to mind is something that others have
probably suggested, that is getting volunteers organized to create a
computer database of the various Indexes we in the Society have. The
sort of thing I'm talking about is the Great Index, Boyd's, Special
Collections, the Library Catalogue etc...etc... You can put my name down
as a volunteer, provided I can work from home (in East Sussex).

What about having a facility on the Society's Web page, or a seperate
mailing list, where people (members *and* non-members) can ask general
questions about genealogical sources to be answered by those staff or
members who have the answers. Not questions like 'My Auntie Mabel ran
off with a Dutch Seaman in 1948 - can you find when he was born for
me?', but rather 'If I have an ancestor who was a surgeon in the Royal
Navy in 1780, what records could I check?'

If this facility was open to non-members, it may just help to convert
them to full members.

>In the future, though not immediate, we would like to get some of our
>records on line on a pay as you view basis. Would you pay for such a
>service?

No, not as a member of the Society. If you make the Indexes, or other
hard data, available on the Internet, then non-members *should* be made
to pay, but I feel that members shouldn't. Nor should there be a fee to
access the computerised indexes at the Society, as membership or day
research fees should cover it.

>Further off we would like to install a 'SOG Internet Cafe' on the lines of
>the current Internet Cafe's. Would you be willing to pay the going rate
>for access to the Internet on a half hourly basis?

Personally, I wouldn't. I do all my Internet stuff from home. I have a 5
hour return journey into the Society when I come up for research, so my
time there is valuable and I wouldn't be interested in an Internet Cafe.
However, I think it *would* be a good idea to have such a facility
because I imagine many members do not have access to a computer or the
internet from home, and this would be one way of providing them with
access.

>In the not too distant future, we are hoping to move to larger premises and
>are currently looking at all the things we would like to see in the new
>building. What would you like to see there?

More space for everything. It's far too cramped everywhere at the
moment. There is not enough room for research notes or for you to write
when you are using the microfiche or the film readers. So more room.

Also, power points dotted all round the place for those of use with
laptop computers. You could charge a nominal 50p or so per day for using
a laptop on mains power in the Society - that will cover the cost of any
electricity. Have a few membership card holders with a green stripe on
it or something, just something to identify someone who has paid to plug
his/her laptop in.

That's all I can think of at the moment.
Warmest regards to all, and good luck with your research
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Pete Finlay researching:
FINLAY,FINLEY,COUGHLAN,McGROGAN,MOORE,HARRINGTON,CULLEN, REGAN - Ireland.
BEARD,HARDWICK,APPLETON,DYKAR,SPILL,ROBINSON,WIDWICK,WIDDICK,WHEATLEY - England.
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