Genealogy accuracy encouraged by sharing microfilms with local libraries

[leafybarb]

Sending microfolm copies to public libraries through traditional inter-library loan programs would free up family history centers that are struggling for staffing to keep open. Some family history centers do not even offer microfilming viewing.

I live in SLC now, but need to move to Portland, Oregon. I want to be able to view films on many different days and hours, but have found that the family history center hours are scattered and quite limited as well. Public libraries have the ancestry.com library edition that is usually offered in family history centers anyway, so that is not a concern.

If we participate in inter-library loans, it would encourage both LDS members and non members alike to be precise and skilled in their research...rather than eagerly but arbitrarily attaching unsourced information to their family histories and thus perpetuating the errors and duplications found so frequently in temple work. Genealogy without sources is indeed mythology.

We all want to be accurate. Please help us by giving us greater opportunities to be so through sharing microfilms with public libraries. Viewing indexed films is tantalizing, but without viewing the original records on microfilm, fewer films are being viewed than if they were sent via inter library loan to public libraries. A risk exists that a researcher might not order the film because they may believe that the indexed information is all that can be extracted from a document. NOT SO. The original needs to be viewed!

The benefits of this program would be that the Church would become more visible to the public, not less so. And in a very very positive way. A missionary activity would be created with no more work or expense than currently exists but with far greater exposure to the public in what would be a truly wonderful endeavor.

[jdlessley]

I do not want to discourage your discussion for this issue. Your topic does have some technology orientation. However it looks to me to address more of the manner in which family history centers are managed and utilized. Have you visited the FamilySearch Forums? You will find a broader audience there and may get some better feedback.

If you are looking for just a discussion you may get it. But that is all. These forums consist mostly of community members like you and me. Those people who make the decisions for family history center management and equipment may visit these forums but there is no indication that they do.