Guidelines for Volunteers and Coordinators of the HIGenWeb Project
Archives
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USGW Hawaii Archives
- FILE SUBMISSION FORMS: These forms at http://www.poppet.org/hifiles/
allow you to type your record and submit it. This will create a file in a format acceptable for HIArchives and ready
for posting. These forms are not mandatory and if you have data already typed please send it in text format directly
to the Hawaii Archives Manager, Maggie Stewart (
maggieohio@att.net).
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Guidelines for Submissions
- USGenWeb Archives
- USGenWeb Archives Search
Please note: Volunteer means that you would not be paid or expect
payment for what you do. All information that has been put onto the
HIGenWeb pages has been done by volunteers. They are in no way compensated
for the work they do, other than the "Thank you's" they receive
from people they have been able to help.
There are many ways to volunteer to help on the HIGenWeb Project.
Some of them are listed below:
- Adopt a county
- Co-Host a county
Co-hosting a county with someone else is the best way to learn to adopt a
county. While co-hosting, you would receive the email
queries and surnames, etc., that people want posted to the county pages. You
would need to make sure all the
pertinent information was included with the request: email address, contact
person, and that the query was written
in good format. If it needs to be reworded, you could do that. Also, you
would acknowledge the
receipt of the query to the county, etc., then forward the query to the
coordinator of that county for posting.
While co-hosting, the host, or another host, can work with you on learning html
and ftp coding and instructions.
Some counties are using an automatic system to receive their queries and
surnames, so they would not need someone to help with the county.
- Information Gathering
You can volunteer to gather information from your county, or counties close to
you. If you do not
have internet access, you can get copies and mail them to the county
coordinator via snail mail. Just contact
the county coordinator for that particular county.
- Do lookups from local sources or from written material
Volunteer to do research in public records that are available in the area where
you live, or from books, etc, that you have
available.
Special Projects
We have several Special Projects in the works that can use some help.
- We have need of volunteers to obtain census records from different areas, old
photographs of places and/or people of Hawaii. And we have
the need for people that can do translations, regardless of the languages they
are able to work in.
There are other projects as well.
- Transcribers
The Census Project, Tombstone Project, and the Digital Archives Project can
always use transcribers.
- Typing
County Coordinators are constantly finding new material to post to their county
pages, but find they could use
some help in getting the material typed up and onto the computer for coding and
posting to their pages. You could volunteer
to type the material into the computer (at your home, and email the file to the
coordinator, that way it is already
on the computer, then the coordinator can code it and upload it to the web).
- Walk a cemetery
County Coordinators are always interested in receiving information for their
county. You could walk your local cemetery(ies)
obtaining the names and dates from the headstones, recording the location of
the headstone (plot/gravesite) and submit them to the coordinator for posting.
These can also be used in the Tombstone Project.
A suggestion: Some people use their local Girl Scout or Boy Scout troops to do
this.
USGenWeb Volunteers in HIGenWeb
Definitions & Requirements
The word Volunteer means many thing to many people, and is used in many
different cases to mean something other than the standard definition found
in the dictionary. In this case, within the USGenWeb and HIGenWeb
Projects, it means we "agree" to coordinate information for the County
we have opted to host, with the only gratuity being the satisfaction of helping
others.
Many of us are coordinating Counties we have connections to with our
own family searches. Which is fine! I started out that way,
and I'm sure many others have too, and many more to come will also.
When you Volunteer to coordinate a County for any of the State Projects
within the USGenWeb, you do so knowing it is for the USGenWeb Projects,
and the many visitors to that County. The USGenWeb does have certain
requirements that have to be on your County Pages. States can, and do,
impose additional requirements and guidelines. To Volunteer to coordinate
a County in the HIGenWeb, it must be with the understanding that you adhere
to these Requirements and guidelines.
USGenWeb Requirements
http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/
HIGenWeb basic requirements
for County Pages
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Graphics will have to be in the standard formats, .gif, .jpg
(.jpeg), that all browsers can view them.
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County Site Content
Many of us came to these pages, this State, or the USGenWeb, looking
for our ancestors. Sometimes we are lucky enough to be able to adopt
the very County we are/were searching in. It is understandable that
we would want to further our search for our own ancestors while coordinating
that very county. However, please keep yours down to a low roar,
and let others have a chance to find their ancestors, or submit their data
too.
We welcome members of the Historical and/or Genealogical Societies that
wish to host a County in the HIGenWeb Project. I have no objections
to the Societies being noted on the pages, and even your Societies Logo
(if you have one) being placed on the main page, just not as the predominant
Logo. This is the HIGenWeb Project, which is part of the USGenWeb
Project, and that must be first and foremost.
- Main Page Requirements
- HiGenWeb Logo and USGenWeb Logo
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The HIGenWeb Logo must be at the top of the main page of your County, at least.
Optional Logos can be found on the Reception Committee page. |
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USGenWeb Logo must be located on your main page. Optional Logos for this
(2 different sizes, and the pillow Logo) are also found on the
Offical USGenWeb Logos page.
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- County Coordinators Email
You should be courteous, quick to respond and assist your
visitors to the best of your ability. You aren't required to do research for
your visitors but you do need to point them in the direction of finding answers.
- No money requests posted
No unnecessary advertisements--if you are on
GeoCities or some other server that requires an ad on it, I am NOT talking
about them! (They are considered necessary.) Also, if you have someone that
does research, and charges a fee for services, please make sure there
is a notation that the person is an independent researcher and not
affiliated with USGW or HIGenWeb. We may place a note on our pages
concerning donating to the server for providing the space, etc of our pages.
But lets be tactful about it.
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Query Page
There must be a query page, and linked as such. A clearly worded
link to view a 'Query', and a clearly worded message (usually e-mail) to
post a 'Query'. (If people don't know where to post a query, or where to
view them, they can't get much benefit from the site)
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Query
All posted queries must be dated. (This would help everyone,
especially the visitor).
- All pages
Link all pages in your site to your index page.
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Updates
Your County pages need to be updated at least every 6 months, and noted so
at the bottom of your pages (this page last updated). Though it would be
very acceptable if they were updated weekly.
Prohibitions
- Non-Profit
The USGenWeb Projects, of which the HIGenWeb Project is a part of,
is a Non-Profit entity. In other words we put this information up
for FREE access by all, 24 hrs. a day, and 7 days a week. No one
will be charged for any of the efforts by the Coordinators, as hosts to
a county in the HIGenWeb Project. If you should come across one that
is charging for access to page, I would like to know about it.
no money requests (this does not mean you cannot ask for reimbursement
for your out of pocket expenses, like copying & mailing fees, etc.)
This should be noted on the lookups page, not on the main page.
- Copyright Infringement
Our goal is to provide free information but we must do it legally. No matter how tempting
it is to upload useful data to our county pages, we must avoid copyright
infringement. Copyright is ownership of the author, creator or publisher of a
given work. Copyright gives the owner the right to benefit from his/her labor.
To avoid copyright infringement, follow these four basic rules:
- Anything dated 1923 and after is protected by copyright. There are no
exceptions.
- Only facts can be shared
- Any use of a work that diminishes its market value constitutes copyright
infringement.
- Obtain written authorization from the copyright holder to avoid committing
copyright infringement.
Copyright Policy
http://usgenweb.org/volunteers/copyright.shtml
- Profanity, pornography and political icons and statements on one of our pages.
I think this is self-explanitory.
This page was last updated
Return to Hawaii State Home Page
USGenWeb Search Us HIGenWeb Page
Maggie Stewart, HIGenWeb Project State Coordinator (2000-Current)
Many Thanks to the former SC Kevin Fraley (1996-2002).
Hawaii USGenWeb Logo courtesy of Pam Reid
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