State Coordinator Guidelines

• Required (Mandatory)

  • Answer Roll-Call.  It will be done quarterly, starting in January.  If you don't reply, it will be assumed that you are no longer available.

  • Project Coordinator must be notified of any and all e-mail changes of State Coordinator's that pertain to the State site.

• The following links are required for all state pages:
  • Counties within the state- only required for those counties with obituaries.
  • The USGenWeb Project - http://www.usgenweb.org or http://www.usgenweb.net
  • The USGenWeb Archives Project - http://www.usgwarchives.net. An optional link to the archives search option might also be included: http://searches.rootsweb.com/usgwarch.html
  • The USGenWeb Project Copyright Information page.
  • WorldGenWeb Project http://www.worldgenweb.org/
• Subscribe to daily uploads.  Here you find files that have been uploaded that you can link to.

• Responsibilities include maintaining the Obits Project web page for your state, responding to emails from researchers and volunteers, formatting submitted obits for upload, and coordinating with USGenWeb Archives File Managers to upload submitted files to the appropriate location.

• It is optional for a state coordinator to contact newspapers for permission and to complete transcriptions of their own.

• It is recommended that a state coordinator join appropriate Rootsweb mailing lists for their state to inform researchers of the project and offer the opportunity to participate.

• Coordinators are not lookup volunteers.  This may be a common request from researchers.  It is recommended that you reply to these requests by suggesting an appropriate resource to them.

• Links to newspaper websites may be included as a courtesy if the newspaper has agreed to participate in the project.  Other links should be referred to the appropriate USGenWeb State/County page as a resource link.

• At a minimal, be expected to devote two hours a week to this project as a state coordinator.

Transcriber Guidelines

• Uploaded files will be in a text format (.txt).  This is the recommended format that files should be submitted. 

• Please use font type 'Courier New', size 10pt (plain text).  Avoid using tabs, as columns do not always line up correctly in all browsers when tabs are used.

• Full obit transcriptions will only be accepted from newspapers that have given permission or those in the Public Domain (ie., pre-1923).  Please help the project by contacting newspaper to ask their permission.  This sample letter should be helpful.

• Indexes should include facts only.  Suggested columns include; name of deceased, date of death, place of interment, date of newspaper and name of newspaper.

• Completed files should be submitted to the appropriate state coordinator.  If the state is up for adoption, please send to the Obituary Project Coordinator.

• Include the following as the heading for each file submitted:

• When linking files they should read http://files (this freezes some computer's and loads very slowly on others).

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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm 

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