[Genealib] Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases -Follow-up

[Lyn Meehan]

Has anyone read anything in defense of The Church? Have they posted a comment? 
 
Please Read Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
 
"Ancestry.com Terminates Free Access to Family History Centers"
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/03/ancestrycom_ter.html
 
Thanks,
 
Lyn Meehan
Information Service Division
Edmonton Public Library

________________________________

From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu on behalf of Karen Stanley
Sent: Sat 3/17/2007 5:34 PM
To: Librarians Serving Genealogists
Subject: Re: [Genealib] Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases -Follow-up


Joy, thank you for sharing both sides of the story.  I am particularly bemused by the FHL's decision to respond to this situation by directing their volunteer indexers to focus attention on producing yet another census index.  Why?  So that "free" access to indexes will be ensured.
 
There is no such thing as a free index.  Even if the indexers are volunteers, there are costs to coordinating an indexing project, and there are also opportunity costs in duplicating work already done by somebody else.  Every hour spent by a volunteer on indexing a given source is an hour that could have been spent on a different project.  Only a fraction of the records in the FHL have been indexed, and if volunteers are directed to needless census indexing, a wealth of immigration, probate, and vital records will remain indexless for several years longer.
 
Today's genealogists now have access to multiple census indexes and census images which are readily available either free through public libraries or at a reasonable cost through private subscription.  The only major gap remaining in census indexing is to transcribe and scan the handwritten Soundex cards, which remain an important alternative where illegible census microfilm led to inaccurate indexing.  
 
Regards,
Karen Stanley
Houston, TX


Joy Rich <joyrichny at earthlink.net> wrote:

	This was posted on today's Genealogy Blog at
	http://genealogyblog.com/ancestrycom/another-side-of-the-ancestrycom-removal-from-the-family-history-centers-5877 .
	
	Joy
	
	Joy Rich
	Chapter Representative, New York Metro Chapter
	Association of Professional Genealogists
	http://www.apgen.org
	http://www.apgen.org/chapters/newyork/index.html
	
	--------------------------------------------------------------------------
	
	Another Side of the Ancestry.com Removal From the Family History Centers
	
	> EMail This Post < | by Leland Meitzler | > permalink | 3/17/2007 |
	
	Yesterday I posted the announcement about the removal of "free" Ancestry.com from the
	Family History Centers. I've now received a copy of communication written by The
	Generations Network CEO Tim Sullivan, to Ancestry employees. Keep in mind that there are
	two sides to every issue - so I think it's fair to make this post.
	
	Although I personally don't profit in the slightest from the success of Ancestry.com, I am
	big supporter of what they do for the genealogical community. I believe that although
	their product isn't inexpensive, it's a tremendous value for any genealogist. Their
	continual addition of new digital data (case in point - The Iowa State
	Censuses!) - as well as indexes makes a real difference to genealogists. That said, you
	can see that I'm probably a tiny bit prejudice. I know that sometimes coming to agreements
	that work for all parties is hard - if not impossible.
	
	Mr. Sullivan's letter follows:
	
	From: Tim Sullivan
	Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 4:38 PM
	To: FYI ALL
	Subject: Update
	
	
	
	I also wanted to share a few thoughts with all
	of you on another topic. For the last seven years,
	our company has provided free access to
	Ancestry.com inside the family history centers of
	the LDS Church. During this time, we've done this
	without any formal agreement or compensation.
	Several months ago, we informed the Church of our
	desire to craft a formal relationship that would
	allow us to continue providing this free access.
	This is similar to the way that we license
	Ancestry.com to over 1400 public libraries in the
	U.S. and U.K. We do this for a license fee which
	lets patrons of these institutions use our service
	for free inside their facilities. As you can
	imagine, this is a very popular program among
	libraries.
	
	Unfortunately, we were not able to come to
	agreement with the Church on the terms of this
	proposed relationship. We are disappointed by
	this, as we know that patrons of family history
	centers value Ancestry.com, and we think our
	institutional licensing program is priced very
	fairly. We remain willing and eager to have
	Ancestry.com available in family history centers,
	and we are even hopeful that at some point the
	Church will reconsider their position and decide
	to give patrons of their family history centers
	access to the world's greatest online resource for
	family history research.
	
	We will continue to provide access in family
	history centers to a small number of databases
	which are covered by other agreements, and none of
	our other many agreements with the Church are
	impacted by this change. We continue to have a
	number of mutually beneficial agreements and
	relationships with the Church, and as two large
	players in the family history space, we share a
	common goal of getting as many people as we can
	interested in their family history. Our
	relationship is a good one, and we are always
	looking for ways to cooperate with the Church in
	order to grow our business and ignite more
	interest in the category. I'm sharing all of this
	with all of you because I am sure that there will
	be some unhappy patrons of family history centers,
	and I wanted everyone to understand that this was
	not a one-way decision on our part.
	
	Finally, I am constantly asked whether we think
	of the Church as a competitor. The answer to this
	really depends on the underlying assumptions of
	the question. Are we competing for dollars? No. Do
	we have exactly the same goals? No. Are we
	unfriendly? Absolutely not. Is TGN committed to
	making sure that Ancestry.com remains the #1
	resource for online family history? Absolutely. Is
	Ancestry going to continue to be the home of the
	world's largest online family tree? Yup. Should we
	be able to innovate faster than anyone on the
	planet in this space? Of course. Are we two large
	players that each have done tremendous things to
	help people understand their family history? Yes.
	Can we continue to cooperate with the Church to
	get millions more people interested in family
	history? We can, and we will.
	
	I think we have a pretty good game plan for
	continuing to grow a truly great company.
	
	Thanks,
	
	Tim
	
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