[OPLINTECH] Organizing Dead People

[Becky Hill]

In the spirit of that all important holiday, Halloween, we would like to
help Ohio libraries organize their dead people.  No, we're not talking
zombies here, but obituaries!

 

Are you struggling in these hard economic times?  Make your genealogical
collection a source of revenue in the web-based Ohio Obituary Index,
www.rbhayes.org/index, The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center hosts
this award-winning web site that you can join, along with 49 other Ohio
Public Libraries. Once your obituary listings are online people will find
them and either come to your library or order them. We are now partnered
with Ancestry.com and Archives.com and the exposure to our data has
increased exponentially because of those affiliations although our site will
always remain free to view.

 

The Hayes Presidential Center will be demonstrating its Ohio Obituary Index
at the Ohio Library Council's 2011 Convention and  Expo in Toledo on October
26 and 27th  http://olc.org/expo.asp. I will be there to greet old friends
who are currently partners and encourage other libraries to join us in this
web-based index of newspaper obituaries and other items, such as local
history collections of clippings, wills and estates, funeral records, etc.

 

Why re-invent the wheel and tax your own too-busy technology department when
we already have done the work, created a very user-friendly interface, and
attracted millions of viewers? Started in 2000, the online Index currently
receives almost 230,000 page views a month  (over 2 million hits a month)
and  is cited as a valuable genealogical tool in books and referred to by
over 300 other web sites. At this time, we have over 2,200,000 names in the
database from Fremont to Marietta and citations to over 3 million newspaper
sources. The Ohio Obituary Index received the Technology Excellence Award
given by the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  

 

For $1500, a public library or historical society can join the Hayes
partnership, receive training on how to enter their data, and start
inputting their names into the web-based system.  The only other charge is
an annual fee of $200 for website maintenance and quality control. If you
have an existing database, it is possible for an additional fee to import
those records into our system.

 

Check to see if your Library Director, other staff member or you will be
attending the OLC 2011 Convention and Expo and stop by booth #216 to see the
Ohio Obituary Index and the administrative side of the database in action
and some Trick or Treat candy, but no zombies.  If you have any questions
before or after, please contact me at bhill at rbhayes.org or 800-998-7737.

 

Becky Hill 

 

 

Rebecca B. Hill

Head Librarian

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center

Spiegel Grove

Fremont, OH 43420

 

419.332.2081 ext. 231

bhill at rbhayes.org

www.rbhayes.org

419.332.4952 (fax)

 

Rutherford B. Hayes Center Library is open Tuesday - Saturdays, 9 to 5,
closed Mondays due to State of Ohio cutbacks

 

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