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Re: quality assessment of LDS microfilms



The Philadelphia City Archives has had a GSU microfilmer on board since
1991.  Three people, all paid filmers, have worked during this period.  The
quality of the film when sent often depends upon the skill and dedication of
the filmer.  The first filmer did a good job, the second looked upon her
work as a job only and the work and reports suffered as a result.  The third
microfilmer has his own high standards and indeed he takes pride in the fact
that the GSU checkers praise his film quality and that the number of retakes
that he has to make are extremely minimal.

In answer to a question posed by Peter Kurilecz, this is actually the second
visit by GSU in the last 30 years.  In 1990, the Church of Latter-Day Saints
sent a cataloger from Salt Lake City to the Archives and carefully went
through our inventory of holdings to see what potential items should be
filmed.  This list was sent to the Family History Library which chose
certain items for filming.  There were some items on the list which were not
chosen by FHL which we would have liked to have filmed but negotiations with
FHL, GSU and the Archives failed to have these items included.  Actually,
since many of the players who made these decisions have changed in the last
9 years, we may be able to get some of these items put back on the list
before we lose our "pet" microfilmer.

I was also involved when GSU approached the Episcopal Diocese of
Pennsylvania for permission to film the registers of the various parishes
within that Diocese.  In this case, it was fairly straight-forward.  GSU
only wanted to film the important vital records of the Diocese, birth, death
and marriage registers of each parish.  There was no discussion regarding
the filming of other types of records, if they even existed.

I do know that GSU is also hampered by budget worries at times so the
emphasis on filming certain types of records (primarily vital records) has
been strengthened recently and records which may have obscure genealogical
value are being rejected.

Jefferson M. Moak
Philadelphia City Archives

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From: "Jefferson Moak" <jefferson.moak@phila.gov>
To: <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Subject: Re: quality assessment of LDS microfilms
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 09:07:01 -0500
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