Holdings of other locations
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:52 am
I serve at the BYU Family History Library (yes, it was changed to a library from the previous name, Utah Valley Regional Family History Center). They have a series of "blue binders" that have Research Outlines and other information for the locality. The Research Outlines has new and updated information written in them as well as highlighted text indicating that has that book/microfilm/microfiche/etc. within BYU's holdings.
Recently, they started scanning and putting these binders on-line in PDF format. I suggested that they contribute and make use of the Research Wiki. This seemed to have sparked not only interest, but also questions. I post this thread so that we may discuss and hopefully come up with a solution that will work.
So far, I have come up with a few thoughts:
Recently, they started scanning and putting these binders on-line in PDF format. I suggested that they contribute and make use of the Research Wiki. This seemed to have sparked not only interest, but also questions. I post this thread so that we may discuss and hopefully come up with a solution that will work.
So far, I have come up with a few thoughts:
- BYU would have these on-line with no attention to the Wiki. I really would rather have BYU as part of the contributing process.
- BYU only uses the Wiki as we have it. I feel it was be great to have BYU's contributions. This would be very beneficial. However, how could they include their holdings? If BYU includes their holdings, then why not Allen County Public Library, Ogden Regional Family History Center, and every other Family History Center, Library, and Society. Obviously, this would become a huge mess and what would need to happen if multiple locations have the same resource?
- BYU could contribute everything other than their holdings . . . in other words, all general information that would be useful to the general public. They could monitor each of these pages and copy them to their website. Finally, they could modify their copies to include information on their holdings. This sure seems like a tedious work that I do not think I would want to do . . . that would be quite a few pages with all of those binders.
- Some variation of the above (just brainstorming). Leave all of the information in the Wiki. To get the BYU holdings, maybe have a parameter in the URL . . . or one of several other methods . . . to indicate that they are requesting BYU specific information. Then with templates, allow the BYU holdings to be "highlighted" or other specific information. BYU still could monitor the pages to make sure their information is not lost, changed, or need to make other additions. Every location that does this kind of thing would be responsible for their own information. I could see that this would be very helpful for those that participated in this manner. However, I do not know that we want to open up the Wiki to indicate holdings of every place.
- Another variation on #4 that just came to mind. I do not know if the FHLC will ever be brought into the Wiki, but that would be very nice at some point. If it is, all film/fiche/books/etc. could always be referenced through a template. This template could, for example, produce other styles (such as highlighting), links, or whatever based upon the facility. They could maintain a table in the database of their holding and actions (style, links, etc.). If they do not hold the resource or no link exists, it would like to the FHLC entry. I could see this as being very nice if it is maintained. I could see if my location has a particular holding before I visit.