FamilySearch Wiki:Technical Meeting Agenda 19 October 2010

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= Agenda =

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From the Community

 * Wiki Articles that are the "Learn More" link from Historical Records collections in FamilySearch don't seem to answer the most important questions about the records. Example: Illinois, Cook County Vital Records (FamilySearch Historical Records). I can't find anything that explains the difference between the Cook County (Illinois) Birth Registers (1871-1915) and Birth Certificates (1878-1922). (e.g., Should *all* certificates from 1878 forward ALSO be found in the registers? Were the registers used in a different part of Cook County than the Birth Certificates? How did they differ in purpose when the records were created?) The invitation for users to contribute information about the collection to the wiki article is nice, but how would any user actually know where the data is coming from? The text of the wiki article speaks to all Cook county records generically (and is the "Learn More" link from more than one database), but each collection is different. Why isn't there a wiki article tied to each individual database? Since the number of Historical Records collections is only going to increase (yipee! love those resources and keep 'em coming!), I think it is increasingly important to provide more specific and relevant information to those who use the collections. I would love to create a forum thread on this topic. Since this touches both Historical Records on Beta and the wiki, where should that forum reside? Get Satisfaction (because I can't use Historical Records effectively without better information) or Forums (because the information I'm using is found in the wiki)? Lise 20:42, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I am not sure if I understand completely. I am guessing that you are not referring to links back to the Historical Records search such as the links by "Access and search the records" as shown on the page you mentioned. (Incidentally, I think the way the links look here is pretty bad because of the way they wrap.) Rather, I am guessing you are talking about a link to the microfilms in the FHLC or wherever they are. Is that correct? It seems to me that the Historical Records information in the Research Wiki should be redundant with what is in the FHLC. I am not so sure that the information is needed in both places. I am not suggesting that we eliminate the FHLC. It just seems like we are kind of building a mess of duplicate information into the Wiki. One thing that I am quite concerned about it that "Record Search" is officially retired. I read that as data is moved from "Record Search" to "Historical Records", it is deleted off of "Record Search" and after it is all moved, "Record Search" will be completely shut down. After beta.FamilySearch.org is taken out of beta, it will go to www.FamilySearch.org. This means that the Research Wiki will have more and more broken links as the migration happens and then even more when it comes out of beta. It seems we should also be talking about having the engineers migrate these links to the RecordSearch template. I have created a thread in the forum for Links to "Historical Records" in hopes that this subject will not be lost. Thomas_Lerman 21:41, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for updating Lise, I believe I understand now. I would agree, but also have the other concerns. Thomas_Lerman 23:15, 18 October 2010 (UTC)