Community News/Archive 2

Linking to the New Family History Archive Viewer
'''UPDATE: These instructions no longer work and are out of date. There is no known solution to this problem at this time. It is not possible to make links to Family History Archive digitized books that begin with "http://dcms."''' Murphynw 23:09, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

As Family History Library books are digitized, they are now being placed in a new viewer. Visitors are are no longer sent to the classic BYU Family History Archive viewer for recently-digitized books. At this time, there are not persistent URLs to these newly-digitized books. The FHA template has been constructed, for use in FamilySearch Wiki, for linking to books in the new viewer.

Steps for using the FHA template:

1. Newly digitized books can be recognized by finding red links in the FamilySearch Catalog.

2. Once you click the red link and open a book in the new viewer (most red links still open books in the classic viewer), you will need to retrieve a identifier that is unique for the book, which is found in the URL.


 * Sample URL: https://dcms.lds.org/view/action/ieViewer.do?from_proxy=true&amp;dps_pid=IE63938&amp;dps_dvs=1325629572098~379&amp;dps_pid=IE63938&amp;change_lng=en


 * In this URL, the unique identifier is IE63938.

3. Once you know this identifier, you are prepared to create an FHA template. Copy and paste this template and fill in the identifier and custom text:.


 * Sample FHA Template:


 * How this displays on the Wiki:


 * Murphynw 22:31, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Community Wiki Support Meeting Date &amp; Time Change
The meeting that has been held on Monday at 9:30 AM will now take place on Thursday from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM. The meeting number is 3232. There is also a Contributor Discussion Meeting on Thursday at 1:00pm. The meeting number for this meeting is 7770.

Contributor Help Gets a New Look - 7 October, 2011
If you frequently use the Contributor Help (Edit and Contribute) Page, you have probably noticed that it is sporting a much different look. The Support Team just finished a major redesign that we hope will make it much easier for contributors (and anyone else who finds them useful) to navigate the pages. All of the pages you are familiar with are still there, with the exception that we now have one consolidated page that has all the information for basic page editing. We are also excited to have a search function on that page that will just search the help content that you can find at the top of the Contributor Help (Edit and Contribute) page. In addition to all of the familiar pages and links, you can now find a link to Resources and Lists, which will be a continually growing category, as well as a link to Volunteer on the Wiki. This link will take you to pages that share ways you can volunteer to help with the care and support of the Wiki such as participating in a project, joining a committee, or even becoming an ancillary member of the Support Team. Don't forget, we have a new Mentoring Program designed to help you should you want any additional assistance !

Wiki Committee's have been created and need your help - October 2011
Some new committee's have been formed to help with the support of the Wiki. If you would be willing to share some time and your expertise with others, one of these committee's might be just for you. Take a look and determine where you can help to keep the Wiki updated and accurate, as well as a place that researchers and contributors can rely on. Check out the Wiki Care and Support page today!

Wiki Mentoring Program is Born - 30 August 2011
A Mentoring program has been established to help new users who may need personalized help with getting started in the Wiki or with specialized projects. To make this a successful program, we need experienced Wiki users who would be willing to act as mentors. See the Mentoring and Mentors pages for further information on how you can help or be helped.

Wiki Contributor Help Forum Added 3 May 2011
A new forum has been created especially for contributors to the Wiki to get your questions answered about how to do something, or how to fix a problem you are having. Visit the new forum at Contributor Help Forum to post a question, or maybe help another contributor by answering one. You will also find links to the forum posted on the Help pages.

FamilySearch Wiki Reaches a Milestone 50,000 articles! - 15 March 2011
Congratulations are in order! Last Thursday, the 50,000th FamilySearch Wiki article was created. We've come a long way since the first 800 articles were created based on the FamilySearch Research Outlines three years ago.

Most of all, many thanks go to the wonderful users and and contributors to the FamilySearch Wiki. We would not be where we are today without all of your help and contributions. It certainly won't take another 3 years to complete the next 50,000 articles. We look forward to working with you towards 100,000!

Family History on TV - 7 March 2011

 * I don't know when this new page was added, but today I noticed the link at the bottom of the Learn page. When visiting FamilySearch.org, click on the Learn tab
 * At the bottom of this screen you will also see the link to Family Tech that was added during the RootsTech conference.
 * Under the Family Tech link there is a new line of text that includes the link to the new page:


 * Family History on TV


 * Towards the middle of this new page there is a link that says:
 * Read more about Television Shows and Family History – guess where this takes you?
 * You’re right . . . the Wiki !!!
 * Enjoy the new content on both the Family History on TV page and the corresponding wiki page, Television Shows and Family History.

Another way to search the wiki -21 Feb 2011
The Family-ology website has a tab labeled Research Wiki that can be used to view alphabetical lists of the content pages available in the wiki. Plus, they also provide a search feature! Check it out!

RootsTech news reports mentions the Wiki - 20 Feb 2011

 * RootsTech Conference: Convergence brings new technological uses Gadgets, Internet are boon to genealogists.
 * Managing RootsTech knowledge - a new page in the wiki was created to capture RootsTech presentations
 * RootsTech: The History of Your Family is in the Future
 * RootsTech - Day 2 - mentions Wiki engineer Don Stringham's presentation of creating Wiki templates
 * RootsTech Ketchup - ok, now we're really stretching, but it's still an interesting article
 * Add additional articles as they are discovered.