 | File Preparation
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Thank you for checking about how to contribute your genealogical materials and data for use in the Digital Archives. All contributed materials will remain accessible, without charge, according the the guidelines below.
How to assist the archivist:
- Please copy the Alberta Digital Archives Notice to your hard disk and place it at the top of each item you submit. (Just update the contributor and email address where shown.)
- Indicate Alberta Archives and the county name in the subject of the transmittal email.
- Submit more than one item or items for more than one county in separate emails.
- Submit files in text format, preferably saved in a text editor, such as Notepad.
- If you are unable to submit the file in text format please check with the archivist to assure your file formats and programs are transferable and readable.
- Convert spreadsheet data to a text format prior to submission.
- Follow file size guidelines below.
- Keep files to around 100 kb in size or less. Split into smaller ones, if necessary. Larger ones really eat up the bandwidth.
- Notify us if you change your email address. If you have a permanent email address, please use that.
- Do not send queries and please don't violate copyright law! For info on Copyright, see: Copyright Myths
Alberta Digital Archives Notice Examples
Contributed for use in Alberta Digital Archives by Your Name <your@email.address>
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ALBERTA DIGITAL ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may
NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other
organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this
material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal
representative of the submitter, and contact the listed Alberta Digital
archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission
to the Allberta Digital Archives to store the file permanently for free access.
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Bios: John B. Smith descendants: Your County, Province
Copyright © 19xx by Your Name. This copy contributed for use in
the Alberta Digital Archives. your@email.address
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ALBERTA DIGITAL ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may
NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other
organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this
material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal
representative of the submitter, and contact the listed Alberta GenWeb
archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission
to the Alberta Digital Archives to store the file permanently for free access.
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Some types of records to get us started
as we don't want to invade anyone's privacy.
We can accept anything in the public domain, anything published before 1921 or items published after 1921 with the authors written permission.
Public domain records include much of the following:
- Bible Records
- Border Crossings
- Cemeteries
- Census Records
- Church Records (members list, baptisms...)
- Court Records
- Educational (school histories, newsletters, school census, yearbooks)
- Land Records (deeds, land transfers, land grants, surveyor's records...)
- Local Directories (phone books, old town and city directories...)
- Local Histories
- Military Records (rosters, service records, pension applications...)
- Miscellaneous
- Newspapers (obits, marriage & birth announcements, local events...)
- Occupational (inspector's reports, accident reports, railroad reports, company newsletters...)
- Prison Records
- Ship Lists
- Tax lists
- Tax Records
- Vital Records (marriage, birth, death)
Guidelines for File Submissions
Contact the person maintaining the county files, or Annette Bame Peebles, the Coordinator of the Alberta Digital Archives, to contribute files.
Alberta Digital Archives NoticePlace a notice on each text file to protect the submitter. A recommended notice:
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ALBERTA DIGITAL ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may
NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other
organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this
material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal
representative of the submitter, and contact the listed Alberta Digital
archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission
to the Alberta Digital Archives to store the file permanently for free access.
***********************************************************************************
1. Only virus-checked files will be accepted.
2. Ascii text (.txt) files are preferred. Non-text will be converted to text before storing. If you have created a .doc, .wri, .xls, .dbf, etc. file, please save it "as text" in your software program, and assign a ".txt" extension to the filename. Hard "tabs" are not encouraged, as they do not translate the same on all browsers. Please use "5 hard spaces" in place of tabs. Large files may be split. Scanned documents will be considered, depending on their content. Data may also be copied and pasted into the body of an email for submission.
3. All data is free to the public, and the Alberta Digital Archives project will not pay royalties on any submissions.
4. Data is provided for downloading "as is" -- no guarantees of anything. The transcriptions in the Alberta Digital Archives should be used as clues in your research, and we strongly recommend referring to the original documents.
5. File contributors must use their own discretion regarding the inclusion of data on living people, our recommendation is to not submit this type of data. Be sure all contributions are historical in nature.
6. We will not accept gedcoms due to space considerations. Please submit your gedcoms to the WorldConnect Project at Rootsweb.
7. No executable files will be accepted.
8. Do not send copyrighted material, unless it is your own, and you include a statement of permission to use in the document. Note: Public domain records cannot be copyrighted.
9. We cannot guarantee permanancy, in the event data is lost.
10. Any obviously false, malicious, libelous, or copyrighted data will be erased. We do not guarantee the validity of any files. Always check the original document.
11. These guidelines are subject to change.
12. Once submitted, the data cannot be retracted by the submitter. (This rule causes concern to many potential submitters. The reason for this rule is that the volunteer file managers spend many hours preparing the files in the proper format for viewing by all types of computers. We have to discourage submissions - retractions - submissions - retractions because of the volume of data that is submitted. The Alberta Digital Archives are accessible FREE and will remain FREE, to researchers. The files within will not be used for any commercial purposes by the Alberta Digital Project.) Copyright to data contributed to resides with the contributor, who agrees that the Alberta Digital Archives, as a not-for-profit project, has permanent use of the data.
13. We retain the right to refuse any submission.
14. Files in the Alberta Digital Archives may not be copied for selling
in any format.