52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Challenges 12 & 13

The Week 12 challenge (developed by my friend Amy of We Tree and hosted by Geneabloggers.com) was: Check out the web sites for the Society of American Archivists (SAA), ARMA International, and the American Library Association. Genealogists can benefit from the educational opportunities and publications of other information-based organizations. You may not be an archivist, records manager or librarian, but you share the same interests. Look at the events these associations hold. Find the books they publish and see if you can request them through your library via Inter-Library Loan. You may also want to check out your state’s (or country’s) library association. If you’re a genealogy blogger, write about your impressions of one or more of these organizations.

I decided to take a look at the SAA website. I was intrigued by their ePublications page. While I didn't see anything directly related to genealogy, I saw some things that might help me at work (I'm a university librarina), particularly a glossary of archival and records terminology, and a thesaurus for use in college and university archives. There were also a number of publications in their online bookstore that were of interest, at least one of which is already in my university library's collection.

Week 13's task is: Make an appointment with Cyndi’s List. All beginning genealogy publications include a link to Cyndi’s List because it is the ultimate guide for family history links. If you’ve never used Cyndi’s List, take the time to look around. If you’re familiar with the site, look again. Take the time to browse with detail. Don’t try to research your own family’s history, just move through the site and get a feel of all it has to offer. If you have a genealogy blog, share with your readers a new website you discovered through Cyndi’s List.

I'd heard of Cyndi's list before, but I wasn't aware of just how much is on it! I'm amazed that one woman maintains this with no help (or at least that is the impression I get from her blog). Perhaps it is getting a little too big, as I encountered a lot of broken links.

Nevertheless, there is an enormous amount of useful stuff at this site. One page that caught my eye was the page on How To - Tutorials and Guides. Since I still consider myself a beginner in genealogy, this page should be really helpful.

© Amanda Pape - 2010