Talk:United States Societies

Societies, Archives, Libraries, and Their Web Sites
A problem exists on how to organize societies and their web sites. The wiki seems to have both "Society" sections and "Web Site" sections. I would guess that most societies have a web site. Although possibly some do not. There seems to be some ambiguity or directionlessness on how the Wiki is organized about Societies and their web sites. Their are also "Archive" and "Library" Sections. Some archives and libraries have their entire holdings in Web Sites, many do not. Again, there seems to be no policy about how to organize information about Archives, Libraries, and their Web Sites.

There are commercial entities that provide Genealogical and Historical information. They may not be considered "Societies", but their goals are the same. The difference is that they are for profit. But for the researcher, they fall into the same category.

It seems somewhat redundant to create the same list under both Societies and Web Sites, since most Societies do have a web site. Perhaps their could be a convention that the Web Site is always listed with the Society, but this might confuse people just looking for Web Sites, who might fail to look at the Society Section. Or one could follow each Society Section with a Web Site section, but then you have two mostly redundant lists. Often a Societey will have two web sites, one being an "Administrative Site" that explains how the society functions, and the other being a "Content Website" holding a major or the major archive product for that society. Maybe these should be differentiated.


 * This was decided long time ago to separate Societies, and their associated Libraries and Museums from standard common websites as well as the generally public archives and libraries which have their own section. When the societies wish to have their pages in the FSWiki, they are welcomed, after all there are policies in place to guide them on setting up their pages. One example is DAR Library. I suggest you go to various states and look at various counties to see what are already listed. Albany County, New York is one example. There are quite a number of Societies already setting up their . And if specific enough for locality, they are linked from Societies, Libraries and Museums section as appropriate. Dsammy 11:46, 2 February 2011 (UTC)