English archive and repository websites

[infostudent]

Dear All,

I'm currently undertaking a masters qualification in a UK Russell Group university, and for one of my assignments I am attempting to build a website to improve access to and information about English archives and respositories.

I am looking for ideas about flaws and weaknesses in the services currently provided by the National Archives and sites provided by local government organisations and record offices. To ascertain problems with the sites I have decided to crowd source forums for ideas, as the site will then directly relate to the needs of users.

I was wondering if you would be able to assist me by highlighting any services you wished the government or local government websites would provide that would make genealogy a lot easier to undertake? This can range from availability of opening hours of an archive, to information relating to the Freedom of Information Act and everything inbetween! Any ideas, no matter how small would be fantastic.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Sam

[grangers14]

Hi Sam,
It will be interesting to see your web site when its all done!
So I hope you post back to us and let us know.

I hope some of our members will have some thoughts on this to help you along.

Im going to move this over to the Miscellaneous area and put as a sticky for you.

Jo

[Maths girl]

Sam

To start the ball rolling -- I think that ease of navigation of site is paramount --- I realise that I have just used jargon to explain what I mean but had to consult my son for the correct word.

Clear links -- what to click to move on -- and how to get back.

That is the practical side -- as to what we would like to be able to do on line -- well ---

clearly identifying what information is available in which format
a) index form
b) on line
c) transcription
d) microfiche
e) original

Any of that help?

[infostudent]

That kind of thing is perfect, exactly the type of suggestions I was hoping for!

Thank you. Any more suggestions are more than welcome and will be of great help.

Thanks,

Sam

[Maths girl]

Hi all -- you know all the moaning we do about the various sites and how they don't do A, B and C.

This looks like our opportunity to let off steam -- you never know Sam might create the perfect site that will unblock all those deadends of ours! --

From the other side why do you like the sites you use.

for me Find My Past is good when I have specific info but it can be hit and miss trying to work out what the address has been indexed under.

on the other hand Ancestry takes your info and gives what it thinks you might be looking for -- its wide net is useful for tracking things when there is less specific info.

Any other ideas?

[grangers14]

I keep thinking but then I go blank!
The National Archives web site is not easy to navigate but cant think how to word it!

Things I do like on some web sites are the use of wild cards to search and being able to add more than one is a bonus!
Ummmm
Jo

[Maths girl]

I keep thinking but then I go blank!
The National Archives web site is not easy to navigate but cant think how to word it!

I think it is one of those things we will have to keep in mind as we try indexes and remember to write the problem down immediately.

What do you try to look up on the NA website -- I have to say that the couple of times I have tried I get lost on it and give up

[infostudent]

These kinds of responses are all great. Any user comments can be turned into justifications for design decisions and can give ideas for where improvements need to be focussed to fix common problems. Thank you again for your comments so far, they really are appreciated

[peterd]

here an example of making thing more difficult

old site setup

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

new site setup

https://www.familysearch.org/

think the new one is a lot more difficult to search, my own opinion

[mallosa]

I agree with you Pete

[gardener]

I agree with you Pete

Me too. And they even messed with the old census search form, so that when you select off the dropdown things then the whole page reloads!
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/ ... census.asp

This site http://blackcountryhistory.org/ is still my pet hate. Lovely photo on there but it takes up the whole of the screen on my laptop. I still can't get the hang of how the search options work, and I swear it had more information available on the old site.

I really dislike having to scroll down all the time - admittedly I use a laptop, but then again so do a lot of people. The BMSGH site is a good example http://www.bmsgh.org/
Most of the time I go there for the link to West Midlands BMD, which is on the lefthand side but I need to scrool to find it. I know that the site is intended for the members of the society but I think those handy links could be placed at the top rather than the bottom.

National Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ is not bad at all. Though the three pictures on the homepage don't need to be so big. Considering what a huge site it is, catering for different groups, I think it is good. And compared to the British Library then Nat Arch is wonderful! How the Britis Library http://www.bl.uk/ can have such an unattractive site beats me.

The things I most dislike, in no particular order, are:

Flashing pictures
Need to scroll due to poor design
Slow loading
Lack of "breadcrumbs" on a complicated site

What I like:

Anything free
Search options which are clear and easy to use
Old sites that have been around for ages and do what it says on the package e.g. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.anc ... ughwallis/ and http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/ which is ugly but has SO much information on it!

[BC Wench]

[quote=

I really dislike having to scroll down all the time - admittedly I use a laptop, but then again so do a lot of people. The BMSGH site is a good example http://www.bmsgh.org/
Most of the time I go there for the link to West Midlands BMD, which is on the lefthand side but I need to scrool to find it. I know that the site is intended for the members of the society but I think those handy links could be placed at the top rather than the bottom.

[/quote]

gardner - this web address takes you straight to the West Midlands BMD site http://www.westmidlandsbmd.org.uk