Some great news for Archives and Libraries everywhere. At least one institution is finding the resources to expand their public hours of operation!
Let us hope this foreshadows the future economy. Read the following announcement from the New York State Library and New York State Archives.
The New York State Library and New York State Archives will institute
new Saturday hours beginning on October 16th. Saturday hours of
operation at the two facilities, located on the 7th and 11th floor of
the Cultural Education Center (CEC) at the Empire State Plaza in Albany,
will be from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free public parking will be available
in the Madison Avenue parking lots adjacent to the CEC. Directions and
parking information is available on the New York State Museum website at
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/information/general/muswhere.html.
This new policy for expanded access does not affect the hours of the
New York State Museum, which is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days
a week, except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.
However if a major holiday (e.g. July 4th, Memorial Day, Veteran's
Day) falls directly on a Saturday, the Library and Archives will not be
open (checking their websites is advised for such holidays).
The New York State Library (http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/) has served New
Yorkers, New York State government and researchers from throughout the
United States for more than 190 years. It is the largest state library
in the nation and the only state library to qualify for membership in
the Association of Research Libraries. The Library's research
collection of more than 20 million items includes major holdings in law,
medicine, the social sciences, education, American and New York State
history and culture, the pure sciences and technology.
The New York State Archives (http://www.archives.nysed.gov/)
identifies, preserves, and makes available more than 200 million records
of colonial and state government dating back to 1630 that have enduring
value to the public and private institutions and to all the people of
the Empire State and the nation.
Best wishes,
Emily Allen
And thank you to the GeneaLib listserv and Eric Grundset of the DAR Library for bringing this to my attention.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Ancestry Acquires Footnote! Oh My!
The following announcement I found on Genealogyblog.com, thanks to Leland Meitzler for bringing this to our attention.
PROVO, Utah, September 23, 2010 – Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire iArchives, Inc. and its branded Web site, Footnote.com, a leading American History Web site, for approximately $27 million in a mix of Ancestry.com stock, cash and assumption of liabilities. This acquisition will provide the company with a complementary consumer brand, expanded content offerings, and enhanced digitization and image-viewing technologies.
iArchives digitizes and delivers high-quality images of American historical records of individuals involved in the Revolutionary War, Continental Congress, Civil War, and other US historical events to Footnote.com subscribers interested in early American roots. iArchives has digitized more than 65 million original source documents to date through its proprietary digitization process for paper, microfilm and microfiche collections.
“Footnote.com is highly complementary to Ancestry.com’s online family history offering,” said Tim Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com. “By promoting Footnote to our Ancestry audience, we hope to expand its reach among researchers who care about early American records. iArchives also brings outstanding image-viewing technology and content digitization capabilities that will improve our leadership position in bringing valuable historical records to the market. We welcome the iArchives team to the Ancestry.com family.”
Upon completion of the transaction, iArchives will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ancestry.com. As part of the transaction, Ancestry.com currently expects to issue approximately 1.0 million shares of common stock. The transaction is subject to various closing conditions and is expected to close early in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Ancestry.com also announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program of up to approximately $25 million of its common stock. Under the authorization, share repurchases may be made by the Company from time to time in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions depending on market conditions, share price and other factors and may include accelerated or forward or similar stock repurchases and/or Rule 10b5-1 plans. Part of the rationale for the repurchase is to offset dilution of equity resulting from the iArchives acquisition. No time limit was set for the completion of this program. The share repurchase program may be modified or discontinued at any time by the Board of Directors.
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world’s largest online family history resource, with approximately 1.3 million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 19 million family trees containing over 1.9 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.
About iArchives
iArchives is a leading digitization service provider that also operates Footnote.com, a subscription Web site that features searchable original documents, providing over 35,000 paying subscribers with a view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “appears,” “may,” “designed,” “expect,” “intend,” “focus,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “should,” “continue” or “work” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements include statements concerning among other things, the proposed transaction between Ancestry.com and iArchives, Inc., including the consummation and anticipated timing of the transaction as well as the expected benefits of the proposed transaction, and the effects of the proposed transaction on Ancestry.com, our subscriber base, our reach, our activities to enhance subscribers’ experience, our business outlook, our leadership position and our opportunities and prospects for growth. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include a variety of factors, some of which are beyond our control. In particular, such risks and uncertainties include the risk that the transaction does not close when anticipated, or at all; difficulties encountered in integrating acquired businesses and retaining customers, and the additional difficulty of integration when continuing the acquired operation; the adverse impact of competitive product announcements; failure to achieve anticipated revenues and operating performance; changes in overall economic conditions; the loss of key employees; competitors’ actions; pricing and gross margin pressures; inability to control costs and expenses; and significant litigation.
Information concerning additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2010, and in discussions in other of our SEC filings.
These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Being the cynical person that I am, I wonder if this is a good thing? Dominating access to scanned documents can only lead to greater expenses and elitism in the fields of Genealogy and Family History. Can this be a good thing? I acknowledge the enormous expense with digitization. And, I appreciate the risks and investments of Ancestry, Footnote, Genealogybank, and others. But, I still wonder where we are going and the costs that will be incurred as we get there?
PROVO, Utah, September 23, 2010 – Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire iArchives, Inc. and its branded Web site, Footnote.com, a leading American History Web site, for approximately $27 million in a mix of Ancestry.com stock, cash and assumption of liabilities. This acquisition will provide the company with a complementary consumer brand, expanded content offerings, and enhanced digitization and image-viewing technologies.
iArchives digitizes and delivers high-quality images of American historical records of individuals involved in the Revolutionary War, Continental Congress, Civil War, and other US historical events to Footnote.com subscribers interested in early American roots. iArchives has digitized more than 65 million original source documents to date through its proprietary digitization process for paper, microfilm and microfiche collections.
“Footnote.com is highly complementary to Ancestry.com’s online family history offering,” said Tim Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com. “By promoting Footnote to our Ancestry audience, we hope to expand its reach among researchers who care about early American records. iArchives also brings outstanding image-viewing technology and content digitization capabilities that will improve our leadership position in bringing valuable historical records to the market. We welcome the iArchives team to the Ancestry.com family.”
Upon completion of the transaction, iArchives will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ancestry.com. As part of the transaction, Ancestry.com currently expects to issue approximately 1.0 million shares of common stock. The transaction is subject to various closing conditions and is expected to close early in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Ancestry.com also announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program of up to approximately $25 million of its common stock. Under the authorization, share repurchases may be made by the Company from time to time in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions depending on market conditions, share price and other factors and may include accelerated or forward or similar stock repurchases and/or Rule 10b5-1 plans. Part of the rationale for the repurchase is to offset dilution of equity resulting from the iArchives acquisition. No time limit was set for the completion of this program. The share repurchase program may be modified or discontinued at any time by the Board of Directors.
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world’s largest online family history resource, with approximately 1.3 million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 19 million family trees containing over 1.9 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.
About iArchives
iArchives is a leading digitization service provider that also operates Footnote.com, a subscription Web site that features searchable original documents, providing over 35,000 paying subscribers with a view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “appears,” “may,” “designed,” “expect,” “intend,” “focus,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “should,” “continue” or “work” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements include statements concerning among other things, the proposed transaction between Ancestry.com and iArchives, Inc., including the consummation and anticipated timing of the transaction as well as the expected benefits of the proposed transaction, and the effects of the proposed transaction on Ancestry.com, our subscriber base, our reach, our activities to enhance subscribers’ experience, our business outlook, our leadership position and our opportunities and prospects for growth. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include a variety of factors, some of which are beyond our control. In particular, such risks and uncertainties include the risk that the transaction does not close when anticipated, or at all; difficulties encountered in integrating acquired businesses and retaining customers, and the additional difficulty of integration when continuing the acquired operation; the adverse impact of competitive product announcements; failure to achieve anticipated revenues and operating performance; changes in overall economic conditions; the loss of key employees; competitors’ actions; pricing and gross margin pressures; inability to control costs and expenses; and significant litigation.
Information concerning additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2010, and in discussions in other of our SEC filings.
These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Being the cynical person that I am, I wonder if this is a good thing? Dominating access to scanned documents can only lead to greater expenses and elitism in the fields of Genealogy and Family History. Can this be a good thing? I acknowledge the enormous expense with digitization. And, I appreciate the risks and investments of Ancestry, Footnote, Genealogybank, and others. But, I still wonder where we are going and the costs that will be incurred as we get there?
Monday, September 13, 2010
Century Farms A New Avenue for Family History
This past week, in between multiple meetings and unpacking boxes, something interesting has become apparent to me. I suppose it is simply my failure to think and make connections, but researching for the Century Farms Program is a new twist to genealogy and family history.
The Century Farms program documents farms within the individual states that have remained in one family for more than 100 years. In addition, some states have programs to honor sesquicentennial farms, or farms that have been in a family for 150 years. The state of Tennessee has a program known as the Pioneer Farms that honors family farms of at least 200 years. By conducting an in-depth search, you can find farms in the New England area that have been in one family for 300 or more years. To contemplate one family owning the same land since 1700 is amazing.
In order to search any of these farms, the family genealogy and the family history needs to be researched and developed. This enhances the fascination of all of this. Here is a new tool, a new use for genealogy and family history research. It really is quite exciting.
The Century Farms program documents farms within the individual states that have remained in one family for more than 100 years. In addition, some states have programs to honor sesquicentennial farms, or farms that have been in a family for 150 years. The state of Tennessee has a program known as the Pioneer Farms that honors family farms of at least 200 years. By conducting an in-depth search, you can find farms in the New England area that have been in one family for 300 or more years. To contemplate one family owning the same land since 1700 is amazing.
In order to search any of these farms, the family genealogy and the family history needs to be researched and developed. This enhances the fascination of all of this. Here is a new tool, a new use for genealogy and family history research. It really is quite exciting.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Hey, I'm Famous!
This is a moment total, unashamed, self-promotion. I would urge everyone to take a look at the "making connections" section, or the letters to the editor, of the Family Tree Magazine. Dated November 2010, the issue just arrived in my mailbox. An incredibly wise author, namely me, took issue with the "Family Archivist" column of the August magazine.
The point of my letter is that encapsulation, the topic of the August column, is not always appropriate for saving family documents. And, I thought the columnist failed to point this out. So, the "rabble rouser" part of my personality has emerged on the pages of this most prestigious magazine.
Be sure to take a look at it. I am quite proud.
The point of my letter is that encapsulation, the topic of the August column, is not always appropriate for saving family documents. And, I thought the columnist failed to point this out. So, the "rabble rouser" part of my personality has emerged on the pages of this most prestigious magazine.
Be sure to take a look at it. I am quite proud.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
More on Camp Lawton
More information about the Union soldiers imprisoned at Camp Lawton, here in Georgia.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/17/georgia.civil.war.camp/index.html?hpt=Mid
Very interesting material.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/17/georgia.civil.war.camp/index.html?hpt=Mid
Very interesting material.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Major Civil War Find in Southeast Georgia!
For nearly 150 years the exact location of Camp Lawton has been a mystery. Few people beyond the most dedicated Civil War scholars knew of the POW camp that served as the overflow from Andersonville. Georgia Southern University archealogy students have uncovered the location of the camp.
read more at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/14/georgia.civil.war.camp/index.html
An interesting story.
read more at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/14/georgia.civil.war.camp/index.html
An interesting story.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
It Really Does Take a Village
As the discussion about adoption and tracking unknown ancestors becomes more prevalent, I am continuously reminded of the title of Hilary Clinton's book It Takes a Village. I keep thinking that in the day of adoption and the medical miracles of artificial insemination, research into ancestry takes new and challenging courses. Here is one example of the new challenges and new answers:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/11/sperm.donor.sibling.connect/index.html?hpt=Sbin
The donor sibling registry and other methods of tracking ancestry is moving as rapidly as new technologies will allow.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/11/sperm.donor.sibling.connect/index.html?hpt=Sbin
The donor sibling registry and other methods of tracking ancestry is moving as rapidly as new technologies will allow.
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