Sharing our Knowledge
Part 16: One Bite at a Time
Sharing our Knowledge is a series of articles about the Historian Archives Project and how you can become involved.
In Creating for the Future, I proposed generating future Strong Updates books from an Official Strong Genealogy Database. The other large value of this approach is that we can take things in bite-size pieces.
Someone can pick up one specific family unit, or one specific file folder from the Historian Archives and do the research surrounding that one specific topic. Rather than taking on a daunting multi-year task all at once, someone can take on one manageable piece, and when that’s complete, come back for the next piece.
Board for Certification of Genealogists: Genealogical Standards Manual
Over time, we finish the task. We have room for “many hands making light work” in that we have room for varying levels of expertise. We could have editors expert at reviewing draft manuscripts. We can have our best genealogists and historians making the actual updates, resolving conflicts between information submitted, ensuring all material meets our standards, and so on. Others could assemble and organize information received, that is, do the preliminary “ground work” for our genealogists and historians. In the process, everyone gains more and more expertise as they gain more and more experience with their part of the project.
When we published our “Preliminary Information” books on CD, we learned how to make that process actually work. We created an end-quality process, established editorial controls, and we all gained experience. So, whenever any part of the Future Updates program becomes ready for publishing, we already know exactly what to do, because we did it before with the Preliminary Information CDs.
We have the option of publishing chapter by chapter as the material becomes available, or to publish as entire volumes. Either way, we have the satisfaction of seeing our work in print as soon as it’s complete.
Please share your ideas!