Building skills at a young age has long been proven successful. Somewhat different from learning to play the piano, young members of the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are indexing historical records of more than 20,000 individuals, making them accessible to genealogists and hobbyists. The Orange County Register brought this interesting information to us in their article, “Mormon youngsters get connected with past while indexing records.”
More than 50 members, ages 10 to 18, from Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo participated in the Santa Margarita Stake’s Youth Indexing Challenge, getting together twice weekly June through August. The participants typed into a database the names, birth and death dates, places of birth and other information on scanned images, such as draft cards, obituaries and headstones. Some worked on French and Ghanaian census records. The information was entered into FamilySearch, a website run by the church.
All records management systems need a system of indexing to create findability. We know that indexing against a strong, standards-based taxonomy can ensure comprehensive search results. Access Innovations is one of a very small number of companies able to help its clients generate ISO/ANSI/NISO compliant taxonomies to produce comprehensive results.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
