User:Evancol/Sandbox/Alabama

You can help thousands who will use the FamilySearch Wiki to help them find their people who lived in Alabama at some point.

Overall Objectives
The purpose of the Alabama FamilySearch Wiki is to help readers find and use Alabama records for genealogy and family history. The project will update and improve:


 * County pages, such as Jefferson County.
 * Alabama main page.
 * Statewide topic pages. Example Vital Records
 * OtherA;Alabama-related pages


 * Highlight important and relevant items. Long lists of every website or every publication would bury, rather than highlight, what's important.
 * Tell readers what to expect when they follow a link or search a suggested record.


 * Balance content with these four factors in mind:


 * a. Genealogical Value. Does this help Wiki users further their research?
 * b. Clarity. Make sure everyone understands your meaning and the purpose of your words.
 * c. Brevity. Be succinct as possible without sacrificing purpose or clarity.
 * d. Documentation. Use footnote(s) to identify the source(s) of the content you are creating.

First, basic content will be added to the county pages. Some tasks are identified, with step-by-step how to do them for the project. You are welcome to suggest additional project tasks or add information to other topics in a county. First focus:


 * Links to online resources: indexes and/or images of records or how to use those records.
 * Local repositories (libraries, archives, museums) and the records and resources they have.
 * Links to catalogs such as the Family History Library catalog, Google books, and WorldCat among others.

Alabama Wiki project tasks
The following are tasks to be accomplished for the Alabama Wiki Project. Each task has step-by-step instructions to accomplish it.

Tasks ready for volunteers

 * Newspapers by county

Tasks not yet ready
These are not yet ready, but you may want to know what is on the horizon.


 * Obituaries section of the counties. Copy wording and adapt the links to each county.
 * History section of the counties Link to online histories of each county.
 * Cemeteries in the counties Link to websites that can be linked specifically to the counties.
 * Repositories in the county: libraries, museums, etc. Phase 1: Add contact information for local libraries, societies, and other record holders in each county.
 * State repositories: Alabama State Archives, State Historical Society, state libraries, etc.
 * Church records Phase 1.
 * Major websites: statewide and county-by-county.
 * Migration: Railroad, trails, etc.
 * Native American records.

If you have additional ideas, please add them to this list and sign it by adding 4 tildes ( ~ )

Project leaders

Tasks completed

 * Links to topics in the Family History Library Catalog This allows only the best items to be highlighted in the Wiki while informing users of other records or resources that are available. This also makes it so the Wiki won't have to be updated each time new things are added to the sites included.
 * Fix Starting Dates for records in the Top Table on each county.
 * Top Table in the counties Copy and adapt the table (from the Experimental County) to each county..
 * County GenWeb Links Link to databases on county GenWeb sites, with information to help users decide to click or not.
 * County History List by year historical events that affected the records and the record-keeping in each county, such as settlement and migration, or natural events, such as flooding, drought, or fires.
 * County Courthouse Find uncopyrighted images of the courthouse (historical or current) and upload them. List their contact information (address, phone, email), including a link to website, addresses, etc.

Register of Interests
Register your interests in Utah counties or topics. By registering, you will be invited to share ideas and suggestions, you will be kept up-to-date, and you won't be contacted for everything else.

To be clear, this is not a committment of labor. It is a pool of expertise and advisors.

Please post the following project banner template on your user page:



You can impact future users of the Utah Wiki with your insights and knowledge.

Counties–Style Guide
See Experimental county page for Utah. We experiment there and discuss ideas and wording and sources under topic headings.

Current focus:


 * Newspapers: finalized ideas 4/4/2012 meeting
 * Obituaries: to finalize 4/11/2012
 * Voting on next topics in April 4, 2012 meeting agenda.

Ideas implemented into current format:


 * The top of the page: image, chart, chart contents, chart colors: accepted sufficiently to start putting it on each county. Started to move the chart at the top of the page and adapt it to each countyAdkinsWH 15:15, 11 February 2012 (UTC)


 * "Parking lot/to do list" page for ideas not yet implemented

See Beaver County for current format.

Schedule
2011 12 October Show and tell and brainstorm with US/Canada Consultants and Utah moderators 15 October show and tell WikiProject Utah to Logan Family History conference. Begin recruiting, set up training.

July 2011 Began weekly meetings with project administrators to plan the project: Dawne Hole, Marilyn Markham, Patsy Hendrickson, Wilma Adkins, with input from others.


 * Meeting times: Administrators -- 9 a.m. Wednesday mornings, 3rd floor FHL.Agendas. Minutes.

Administrators' schedule:


 * Nov, 2011


 * Set the Utah Wiki project schedule
 * Approve the project model county style page Beaver County
 * Adopt the existing tasks or create a proposed alternative task list. Review tasks descriptions and steps.
 * Review and create "how to's" that support task descriptions
 * Begin recruiting for beginning of Jan community kickoff of the project


 * Dec 31, 2011


 * Approve Utah treasurer hunt rules/guidelines and prizes.
 * Complete and approve project rules
 * Approve a project completion measuring tool (possibly modeled after the one for Illinois)

2011


 * 31 Dec Complete descriptions and step-by-step guides for tasks to be accomplished during the Utah Wiki project.
 * Tasks will be planned for those who prefer tasks that don't require a lot of thinking or original writing, as well as those who prefer more challenging tasks.

2012


 * 1 Jan Start weekly meetings with the community and contributors to report progress, give training, and brainstorm additional ideas for the project.
 * [TBD] With much of the planned content in Utah counties completed, the Utah treasure hunt for other records and resources begins. This will be a contest, with prizes from FamilySearch, UGA, and others.
 * [TBD] The Utah treasure hunt contest ends.
 * [TBD] Utah Wiki Project becomes inactive as a project, although many will continue contributing to its pages.

Project Guidelines
The following guidlines will be followed by the WikiProject Utah members until end of the project, tentatively scheduled for TBD 2012.

Vetted content
Before you add similar words to more than one Utah Wiki page, your words must be vetted and approved by any two other team members who are guided by rule #1 and agree with you on that way of presenting it.

Style
The first few weeks of the Utah project we will agree on a model style, and create at least one example page of it. To keep the project moving forward, NO style changes nor further discussion of changes will be allowed after that for the remainder of the project (tentatively until TBD 2012). Participants are expected to follow that style during the project.

Style includes but is not limited to:


 * Use of standard Utah templates
 * Headings (anything that would appear in a table of contents) match with FHL Catalog subject headings as much as possible Example: Beaver County, Utah
 * Heading levels: use levels three, four or five; avoid levels one and two
 * Order of presentation
 * Table of contents style or position (or lack of TOC)
 * image, table, or template positions or size; prefer sharp images relevant to the topic on the page
 * font
 * bold
 * italic for titles of published books
 * underline
 * indentation
 * bullets. Items under headings on county pages will be bulleted lists. Information describing the headings themselves will not be bulleted.
 * numbering
 * citations in footnote style
 * Please use the full Chicago Manual of Style footnote style (modified):


 * Author(s), followed by a comma
 * Title (book titles in italics)
 * Publication data in parenthesis:
 * - Publication place, followed by a colon
 * - Publisher
 * - Year of publication
 * - comma, and the the page number(s) followed by a period
 * Access information:
 * - link to free online copy, if any. IF a free online copy is available no further access data needs to be added.
 * - IF NO free online edition is available, then add:
 * - WorldCat template:.
 * - FHL template:.
 * - Brief annotation explaining the content, or why, or how a reader would want to use the source.


 * image, table, or template style
 * internal link style
 * external link style including brief annotation. Prefer http:// links over https:// links.

Wording changes
Before changing the saved wording of another team member who followed these rules you must get their consent (except for obvioobvious minor typos).

Links with purpose
The Wiki is not a links repository. It uses links to support the genealogical educational purpose of a page or section of a page. Show and explain links with an educational purpose in mind. Annotate each external link briefly but well enough for the reader to realize what they will be getting if they click that link.

Seek out local and unique
Seek out local and unique genealogical search strategies, records, or repositories and explain them to readers.

Describe each edit
Describe each edit in theSummaryfield before clicking the Savebutton.

Non-compliance
Non-compliance will result in work being reverted, or changed to follow these rules.