We Can Do It All Online, Cant We

1
We Can Do It All Online, Cant We?

• Drew Smith, MLS
• Tampa Library,
• University of South Florida

2
Americans 65 and older

• 22 use the Internet (February 2004 survey,
  Pew Internet American Life Project)

3
Americans 65 and olderabout the same as other
adults

• e-mail
• health info
• financial info
• games
• religious info
• phone calls

4
Americans 65 and olderless often than other
adults

• search engines
• researching products/services
• hobby/interest info
• weather
• news
• surfing the Web for fun
• government info

• buying products
• travel reservations
• political news
• sports info
• downloading games, videos, pictures
• instant messaging
• online banking
• online auctions

5
Americans 65 and oldermore often than others

• Researching family history/genealogy

6
Impact of tech on genealogy

• Late 70s thru early 80s the PC
• Late 80s thru early 90s the Internet
• Late 90s thru now the Web

7
Two warring camps?

• Some traditional genealogists - Nothing online
  can be trusted.
• Some newer genealogists I can do it all
  online.

8
An archive will have to

• Convince the traditionalists of the value of
  the archives digital collections, and teach how
  to use them.
• Convince the newbies of the value of the
  archives print/microfilm collections, and teach
  how to use them.

9
Best practices

• Demonstrate how to combine the use of digital
  and print collections to get the most out of each

10
Starting at home

• Help genealogical patrons learn how to preserve
  their own one-of-kind documents (including how to
  digitize them)

11
Archives can

• Teach preservation
• Teach digitization
• Teach organization
• Teach how to create oral histories
• Encourage donation

12
Published sources

• Online catalogs (your own and others)
• Print materials (family/local histories)
• Digital book/manuscript collections
• Websites for new and used books
• PERSI (to locate print articles)

13
Newspapers

• Online databases for current and historical
  newspapers
• WorldCat combined with local library catalogs to
  locate holdings of print/microfilm

14
Census, Vital Records, Directories

• Online census, military, ships passenger lists,
  indexes to other records
• Print/microfilm vital records, city directories,
  phone books

15
Archives, Courthouses, Cemeteries

• Archive/courthouse websites
• Scanned documents
• Online indexes
• Visit for print/microfilm holdings
• Cemeteries online, indexes, print, tombstones

16
Future

• More book scanning, some periodicals?
• More newspapers scanned
• Digitization of FHL microfilm, and indexing