This morning, Shirley Sturdevant, President of the OGS, has put the answers to
her questions she asked the LAC last Saturday in an open letter.
The morning, her letter was answered by M. Fabien Lengellé, Director General, Content
Access Branch of Library and Archives Canada (LAC).
So what do you think? Are these the answers you were waiting for – has he answered her concerns completely?
You can read my blog at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-is-partnership-between-lac-and.html where she asked the questions.
You can read the answers at http://www.ogs.on.ca/ogsblog.
3 comments:
In short: no. I found it disingenuous to rephrase the questions before answering them, an old trick you'll find employed by politicians. By doing so, it appears that all questions were answered, but they were not. Most glaring example: "Was there no Canadian organization that could handle this?" becomes "Why did LAC go to an outside source and eventually select Ancestry to manage this project?" While I fully appreciate that the LAC's actions were motivated largely through economics, I find it distasteful that the Canadian census is only available online through a private foreign entity. Moreover, I recall one of the big hurdles in releasing the 1921 census was attributed to privacy concerns. Any concern for privacy is right out the window once you allow the information to be controlled by or subject to foreign laws.
While there was some good info in the answers, not all the big questions were addressed.
My biggest concern with having the indexing handled by Ancestry is I find their transcription abilities somewhat lacking. I've always been curious if the data entry portions are outsourced because some of the errors I've seen makes me suspect the person doing the transcribing has little familiarity with common English(for lack of a better term) names.
Hi, Callie,
Yes, you are correct. All indexing is done offshore, and the rumor is that it is being done by such a country once again.
LAC said that they didn't have the resources to do it, and they had a good deal with Ancestry - so it is being indexed even as we write.
So when the index is finished (2 3 months from now), keep me posted as to the mistakes that you run into.
I want to keep abreast of these things that affect OUR genealogy
Elizabeth
Post a Comment