The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
consumers, packed with straight talk - hold the sugar coating - whether
the vendors like it or not!
The following book review was written by Bobbi King:
Life in Civil War America By Michael O. Varhola Publisher: Family Tree Books, Cincinnati, OH
A paperback book with 319 pages, with illustrations, drawings, images, photographs, appendices and an index
If this book was a house up for sale, its curbside appeal would create a traffic jam in the neighborhood.
The tan matte paper pages and historic font give the book an “old-timey” feel, and reminds me of when I pick up an old yellowed newspaper and I just know I’m going to like what I find when I start opening the pages and read through the columns. Mr. Varhola indicates that this as a second edition follow-up to his first edition Everyday life during the Civil War (1999).
The overall look of the guide is crisp and sharp; it’s a credit to Mr. Hait that he’s a talented writer who knows how to design a readable, understandable, and engaging publication.
I have written many times about the declining sales of printed books and the growing sales of ebooks. I expect printed books to almost disappear within a few years. A few specialty publishers may remain but most will convert to e-publishing. Now, writer Nicholas Carr has examined statistics about the sales of ebooks versus printed books and makes a case stating the opposite: he believes printed books will remain with us for a long, long time.
I have written before about book scanners. You place the book in the scanner, press a button, and then walk away for a while as the scanner turns pages automatically and creates a digital image of every page in the book. It employs a robotic mechanism to flip through the book and has cameras that take an image of each page.
With most book scanners, you don't even need to cut the bindings off the books being scanned. Now newsletter reader Jay Crossman wrote to let me know of a new beast to be available soon that will scan 250 pages per minute. That's roughly 4 pages per second!
EasyFamilyHistory.com has announced a new e-book by Paul Larsen called Bring Your Ancestors to Life Using Newspapers. The announcement for the new book states, "Archived newspapers allow you to tap into a reliable source of hundreds of years of history, and give you the remarkable ability to see it through eyewitness accounts. You can easily explore your family tree and bring your family history to life for free using historical newspapers... if you know where to look."
This marks the second national and regional award for the Hannah Mather Crocker book. The following was written by the New England Historic Genealogical Society:
November 14, 2012, Boston, MA – The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) announced today that its book, Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston by Hannah Mather Crocker edited by Eileen Hunt Botting and Sarah L. Houser, received the 2012 Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) “Edition Award.” This award is given every three years in recognition of excellence in the recovery of American women writers. SSAWW praised the book for its interdisciplinary and collaborative nature, and the way it brings American women's voices to a larger audience.
The following announcement was written by Geoff Rasmussen:
Genealogists use digital imaging technology every day. But what they do not know about it can harm their digital treasures. They have needed a comprehensive, easy-to-read guide, full of illustrated step-by-step instructions to learn how to digitize, organize, preserve, share, and backup their digital collections.
Your wait is over. You now have Digital Imaging Essentials: Techniques and Tips for Genealogists and Family Historians at your fingertips.
The following announcement was written by Richard Hill:
Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA is the first book to chronicle the paradigm-shifting application of genetic genealogy to adoption search. Author Richard Hill tells how DNA testing identified his deceased biological father and helped him reunite with his siblings.
November is National Adoption Month and the seven million U.S. adoptees will be thinking about their first families…the mothers who gave them up for adoption, the fathers who helped create them, and the biological siblings they never knew. A new book, Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA, gives a true and deeply personal account of adoptee Richard Hill’s quest for his biological heritage. The cornerstone of the book is his landmark use of DNA testing to unravel the lies and secrets surrounding his birth.
The following announcement was written by the Daughters of the American Revolution:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The DAR Library has begun a new series of publications that focus on research in each of the original states during the period of the American Revolution. These studies will be offered as downloadable PDF documents and not as printed volumes. Purchasers will be able to download the entire text of each publication for use on their home computer or laptop.
The following announcement was written by Scott Phillips:
Unique Czech Genealogy Resource Available in English for the first time ever at Onward To Our Past
Writing for Huffington Post United Kingdom, GenealogyBank.com, and
others in addition to releasing first ever translation of rare 1895
look at early Czech immigrants.
Genealogist, Scott Phillips, owner of Onward To Our Past® Genealogy
Services, located in Michigan City, Indiana, now writes for Huffington
Post United Kingdom and the e-publications of GenealogyBank, a division
of Readex, on a regular basis on genealogy topics of all varieties.
Additionally, his firm has just recently completed an extraordinary
project that will be available to historians and genealogists free of
charge on the Internet.
Writing in the FamilySearch blog, Nathan W. Murphy reports that nearly 1,200 digital family history books were uploaded to Family History Books during the month of July (which apparently is the last month for which statistics are available). These books are now accessible to everyone for free at Family History Books.
In addition to 700+ family genealogies, several printed English parish registers, dozens of Texas and Missouri local histories, issues of the periodical Pilgrim Notes and Queries, Michigan military records, marriage abstracts from several Kentucky counties, 5 volumes of the Adjutant General of Illinois records from the Civil War, and Latin for Local History: An Introduction, as well as many other titles were all digitized in July.
Journalist Emily Bristol has written an article that probably should be required reading for all politicians and public officials involved in local budget issues. She writes, "Our public libraries are not just threatened this election season. They’re fighting for their lives — and with them, the livelihoods and well-being of hard-hit communities all over the country." She then goes on to give several specific examples.
She also writes, "But the truth is that the state of our public libraries is a kind of litmus test of not only our economic health but that of our democracy, too. After all, libraries are the free, democratization of education, unbiased research, and uncensored enlightenment."
The following announcement was written by the Federation of Genealogical Societies:
August 22, 2012 – Austin, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announces the publication of the second edition of Bylaws Workbook: A Handbook for New & Established Societies, compiled by Marcia S. Lindley and revised by Roberta “Bobbi” King.
This workbook is designed to help societies create successful bylaws that prevent confusion, dissension, and disagreement. Whether large or small, new or established, societies can use this guide in planning, drafting, and implementing bylaws that guarantee a smooth-running organization. Whether a society realizes it or not, the most important document for its members is the bylaws. It is the only document that tells the members how the society is supposed to function.
Calibre is a great FREE e-book library manager, e-book reader and converter all in one. It’s the ideal companion to your Nook or other e-book reader. Books can be categorised manually and searched by author, year or genre. Books in multiple e-book formats are collated and listed as one entry so that you don’t see multiple copies of the same book. Calibre also makes it easy for users to find DRM (Digital Rights Management)-free e-books. Calibre program is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Also, iPhone users can access Calibre via Stanza.
I described Calibre in an earlier article still available at http://goo.gl/OrQqJ. Now the company that produces Calibre has released an updated version: 0.8.64.
This is a great online tool! Mollie Lynch of Clarkston, Michigan, is a retired librarian who decided to assist people wishing to find genealogy books. She knew that thousands of American biographies, genealogies and history books have been digitized and made available on the Internet, usually free of charge. However, there was no single resource of "what is available and where." Mollie decided to create that resource.
Mollie's web site, GenealogyBookLinks.com, provides links to freely available digital books, focusing on American biographies, genealogies, and history books. The site now contains more than 30,000 links from more than 35 sources (only the top sources are listed on the site). New books are being added to the list daily. The current focus is on surnames, directories, vital records, and identifying smaller sites with local area-specific books.
I am a big fan of e-books and now I rarely read a book printed on paper. The past ten or fifteen books I have purchased were all published as e-books. However, a recent article by Alexandra Alter in the Wall Street Journal was a bit of a "wake up call." Alter says an estimated 40 million e-readers and 65 million tablets in use in the U.S. Alter then claims that Amazon, Apple, Google, and Barnes & Noble all can easily monitor your reading habits.
A bit of controversy is swirling about concerning the ancestry of First Lady Michelle Obama. Megan Smolenyak, author of Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing, first reported Michelle Obama's family tree in several web articles, including the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/08/us/politics/20091008-obama-family-tree.html. Now one of the reporters for the original New York Times article, Rachel L. Swarns, has published a rather different version in her new book, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama. In fact, some of the claims made in the new book are offered without citations or any other form of independent proof.
I received an email message from a newsletter reader expressing dismay with the procedure being used to digitize books at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. I answered the message and then decided to share my answers here with others in case anyone else has similar concerns.
I suspect this person is not happy with my reply.
At the request of my correspondent, I have deleted the person's name. I also edited the message a bit for brevity and also to delete a couple of identifying comments. However, I do believe I have captured all the concerns that were expressed.
Do you need to catalog and keep track of the many e-books you have obtained? How about creating your own e-book version of a book or other document you have created or downloaded in some other format? That way, you can read the newly-created e-book in your own reading device.
Calibre is a FREE e-book library manager, e-book reader and converter all in one. It’s the ideal companion to your Nook or other e-book reader. Books can be categorised manually and searched by author, year or genre. Books in multiple e-book formats are collated and listed as one entry so that you don’t see multiple copies of the same book. Calibre also makes it easy for users to find DRM (Digital Rights Management)-free e-books.
Calibre also syncs many different e-book reader devices, downloads news from the web and converts it into e-book form, and is a comprehensive e-book viewer, in some ways better than the e-book viewer that came with your device.
The following announcement was written by the New England Historic Genealogical Society:
Scott Steward and Christopher Child Share Top Prizes from NGS and CSG
Boston, MA – May 22, 2012 – The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) announced today that one of its latest Newbury Street Press titles, The Descendants of Judge John Lowell of Newburyport, Massachusetts, by Scott C. Steward and Christopher C. Child, has won top honors from both the National Genealogical Society and the Connecticut Society of Genealogists. The awards were handed out at recent ceremonies hosted by each organization.
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