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GENTECH 2004 Wrap-Up January 26, 2004 The conference banquet on Friday evening featured a talk by Jay Verkler of the LDS Church’s Family History Department, speaking on "Transforming the Potential of Coming Technologies in an Ages-Old Discipline." Jay’s talk focused primarily upon technical issues and some of the LDS Church’s plans for the next decade or so. March 5, 2004
We heard some speculation last week that the changes would include a newly organized FamilySearch Web site (http://www.familysearch.org), which would combine all the current site's databases, possibly with links to source documents viewable online. But don't get excited yet. The only official word from the FHL is that there'll be another announcement at this year's FGS conference (Sept. 8-11, http://www.fgs.org/2004conf/FGS-2004.htm), and the public launch is likely another two years away. —Diane Haddad, Newsletter Editor September 11, 2003—Printer-Friendly Version —Diane Haddad, Newsletter Editor Reorganization of the Family History DepartmentThe LDS Church has announced that a Records and Information Division is being created within the Family and Church History Department. The new division is charged with exponentially increasing worldwide access to their vast collection of genealogical records. This access will be provided through the Internet, the Church’s network of over 3,700 family history centers and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The goal of the Records and Information Division is to make information readily available in a form and format that leads researchers easily and directly to the specific records they are seeking.
David E. Rencher, former director of the Family History Library, has been named the new director of the Records and Information Division. He has the formidable challenge of organizing the world’s largest repository of genealogical information in a way that will intuitively guide individuals quickly and easily to those records that are most likely to help them with their particular family history research need. Rencher said, “While the nature of genealogical work often is not easy, our customers want the required processes, tools, and knowledge of how to proceed to be simple. They want convenient access to records and information and timely and accurate responses to their needs. That’s our task for the next five years.”
“We are excited about the creation of the Records and Information Division,” said Jay L. Verkler, associate managing director of the Family and Church History Department. ‘This new division will greatly assist our efforts to reach the worldwide audience who need our records. It will enable us to focus better on continually improving our great collections and the access we provide to them.” Family Chronicle • July/August 2002 5 |
Back
in September, after the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)
conference, we told you about a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints Family History Library (FHL) announcement: The FHL was conducting
a worldwide genealogical needs assessment in preparation for developing
a new system that could fundamentally change how you do research. (See
that newsletter at
Genealogical
possibilities of the coming decade