[Genealib] indexing projects

[Larry Naukam]

"...Interested to know how many Libraries and/or societies are currently
undertaking indexing projects? If so, why? What software/tools are you
using? Hosting on the web, in-house only, published?"

We have done a lot here in Rochester. Mostly it is because I am a
troublemaker and want to have things easily available for the users instead
of walking over and showing them for the n'th time.

I can usually assign some people to create things (which is one benefit of
having some seniority) and get them back pretty quickly. We use Excel for
the most part, as no one knows Access, and management hasn't yet wanted to
spring for a commercial or custom made database. (We are going out to bid
later this spring for a content manger)

The Rochester Genealogical Society has been doing a digitization project of
local church records. It is not an index, but rather creating a digital
image of the original church books. After they are completed (and over 5000
pages have been done to date) a digital and hard copy will be donated to the
library. Digital copies also go to the church and to the RGS. There are no
plans to put these on the web, mostly because of privacy agreements.

Links for various RPL indexes are at: 
Digital Collections:
http://www2.libraryweb.org/index.asp?orgid=630&storyTypeID=&sid=&
General Indexes:
http://www2.libraryweb.org/index.asp?orgid=439&storyTypeID=&sid=&
City Directories:
http://www2.libraryweb.org/orgMain.asp?orgid=468
Life Records (nearly 850,000 names 1957-2008)

Altogether we guesstimate 1,500,000 pages of historical data and over nearly
1,000,000 names of individuals.