How do we choose projects?
Recently the question of how we choose projects for the World Archives Project was posted on the message boards.
As we review projects that have been acquired by our Content Acquisitions team we review the contractual terms and decide how it should be indexed. A few questions we ask that would qualify the project for being part of the World Archives Project are…
- Can the index be made free?
- Is there a set timeline for the index being available on Ancestry?
- What is the complexity and size of the project?
After answering these questions, we determine whether the project is a good candidate or not. If the index cannot be free this disqualifies the project from being indexed by contributors. As you know the timing of projects is determined by the size of the project and how many contributors choose to index that project – so if we have a timeline in the contract that we feel we could not meet this also disqualifies the project. Lastly, if the records are very difficult we may also choose to disqualify the project. (Do any of you recall our Swedish record test?) Once we have determined that a project will be part of the World Archives Project we proceed forward with the project set-up and indexing. (You may be interested in reading our article on The Life of a Project .)
This is how we choose the projects being indexed by you – how do you choose the projects you index?
Do you know when the 1950 US census will be released for indexing? That will be fun! I can’t wait to see my family on it!