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Archiver > GENMSC > 2001-03 > 0984537526


From: "Cynthia M. Van Ness" <>
Subject: Re: Wuerttemberg index: end of the line for print?
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 02:38:46 GMT
References: <G9zqwD.MFv@freenet.buffalo.edu>, <j93mat0143hu9idgi0nbc4si2jr3lpj0ve@4ax.com>


On Sat, 10 Mar 2001, Dennis P. Harris wrote:

> It's also a lot faster and easier to search a CD-ROM.

Yes, it sure is, if you know the exact name you want. But if there is no
Soundex/phonetic search capability, you may well miss the name you need if
it is spelled differently that you expect. I think back to the patron I
had who spent years looking for an ancestor named BORLAND only to find out
it was MORLAND (both are approximate names--only the first letter is
unchanged to make the point). She discovered her error using print
sources. She would never have done had she consulted only CD-ROMs.

Print enables many more of the serendipitous Eureka moments, because 100%
of the contents of whatever you are reading can be examined. You know
where the source begins and ends. With print, you are more likely to find
something that you were *not* looking for, because you didn't know you
needed to spell it differently. Or look in a different county. Whatever.

But, having said all of that, this was *never* an either/or question, it
was a request to urge the publisher to release the index in *both* print
and CR-ROM. Check my original post.

*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-*
Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, / http://cynthia.is-online.net
"Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous
streets and districts to grow without them." --Jane Jacobs, 1961

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