19 December 2016

Lump of Coal Award Nominations

This is the second annual call for nominations for organizations that deserve a lump of coal in their stocking this Christmas?  Here are my nominations.

1. Findmypast for shockingly continuing to list Canadian records under United States in the A-Z of Records. Apologies aren't enough to excuse inaction on a simple fix.
2. The Association of Professional Genealogists and Board for Certification of Genealogists for failure to provide standards for the use of terms for confidence in findings used by professionals. Fail.

3. Library and Archives Canada for ignoring newspaper digitization, and practically ignoring newspapers entirely by having no dedicated newspaper librarian. Canada is at or near the bottom of the list of national libraries for this aspect of operations. Continuing neglect.

4. The Ottawa Public Library: for letting the Ottawa Room flounder. For example, the Bytown pamphlet series recently published number 100, but the latest in the Ottawa Room is number 90 with a note attached that 91 and 92 are in  cataloguing. There continues to be no meaningful virtual presence. This is the second year of neglect.

5. The General Records Office (England and Wales) for continuing to gouge for birth. marriage and death records, and continuing to do so despite findings that a restrictive policy is unnecessary. Some progress this year, could do better.

6. Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections: for inability to proof-read, spell and grammar check. This for the second year with no evident improvement.

Your nominations are welcome.

11 comments:

Steve Low said...

Your lump of coal should be metamorphosed into a diamond, for the content and timeliness of your blog. When I am profreading and so on, I tend to see what I intended should be there rather than what actually is. Only leaving the material for three or four days gave me even a chance of finding my errors.

Steve Low said...

Your lump of coal should be metamorphosed into a diamond, for the content and timeliness of your blog. When I am profreading and so on, I tend to see what I intended should be there rather than what actually is. Only leaving the material for three or four days gave me even a chance of finding my errors.

Peggy Homans Chapman said...

I think there should be a unanimous decision to focus on the FMP issue, which has come to a head a couple of times this year but has been pointed out to them for some time ( 3x by myself in the past 2 yrs). As you state there are always apologies but no change has occurred. When feeling slightly cynical, I note the continuing lack of Canadian resources - if Canada was not aligned with the USA, it would be evidence of a pretty small collection. I cannot think of any other reason why there is a benefit to continually annoy an entire country ( albeit a small potential customer base) by ignoring its feedback. There, I know that not everyone finds this insulting but no other subscription database is set up in this way.

Anonymous said...

Saskatchewan asks for exorbitant amounts of $$ for e.g. a death certificate. Ontario ones are easily accessible on Ancestry (available at local library) and probably elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

Saskatchewan asks for exorbitant amounts of $$ for e.g. a death certificate. Ontario ones are easily accessible on Ancestry (available at local library) and probably elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

I find it annoying that although Find a Grave can distinguish between the United States and Canada they can't sort by province or territory

jon said...

I'd add FMP. The entire year I had a sub, mostly 2016, the American and Canadian newspapers were unreadable. Despite many emails back and forth FMP did nothing except send silly useless advices. So I did not renew.

J said...

The proofreading on Anglo Celtic Connections is much much better than in newspapers and other publications, according to me. I used to proofread classified and display ads as a summer job in the 1960s and still do that as a involuntary habit. You would get a golden orange award, not a lump of coal.

J said...

The Anglo Celtic Connections should get a golden orange, not a lump of coal, for proofreading!

Anonymous said...

You can't proof your own work, so don't be so hard on yourself. The brain knows what you meant to say and the eye is deceived. If writers could proof their own work there would be little need for professional proof-readers and editors. Have a wonderful Christmas.

Teresa said...

While I agree with your comments re LAC and OPL, I imagine much of the problem is a lack of funding and lack of staff. I work in a small public library and can attest to how strapped we are, thus limiting our services. Love your blog!!