The first thing I would like to accomplish is to remind everyone of the purpose of the Archives and some of the rules. Our first and most important purpose is to provide storage space for genealogy- related text files for the USGenWeb. We should also notify our CC that we have uploaded something to the Archives so that he or she can link to it. Our next responsibility is to encourage volunteers to contribute records for our county, state, country. The rules say: Every text file stored in the Archives must have a contributor's name, email address, and the USGenWeb notice of copyright. If the item is an image, it can be stored in the html side of the Archives but it should probably be sent to the CC if he wants it. If it is stored in the Archives, the contributor's name and email address should be listed on the TOC (with all the other contributor's names and email addresses.) All file names are to be 8.3 characters (numbers or letters); no caps, no spaces, no dashes, no underscores, nor any other punctuation. 8.3 means 8 characters on the left side of the period and 3 characters on the right side. If a file contains information about one individual, such as a single obit or bio, the filename can use the Soundex equivalent plus 4 extra numbers. I have set up a Soundex converter on the state TOC and you can use it to get your equivalents. The filename will have a letter and 3 digits which stand for the surname then 4 more digits (0001, 0002, 0003, ... 9999) so that one can be distinguished from another. I urge you to be very careful when uploading a Soundex-coded file. It is very easy to replace "Boone"'s file with "Bohn"'s. Mr Boone's file should be named b5000001.txt and Mrs. Bohn's should be b5000002.txt. If you don't use the Soundex, then do use the first 5 or six letters of the last name and the initials such as boonemc.txt or bohnmg3.txt. All files should be set up in this manner from the topmost line: The first line will contain whatever title the document has with the county and state and one blank line, then contributor's name and email address (in these , and the link to the copyright page. I would prefer it to be EXACTLY as this example. If you put the title on the second line, I'll complain. No centering! Obituary of John Brown, Pope Co, AR *********************************************************** Submitted by: John Volunteer Date: 1 Jan 2007 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm *********************************************************** Files should be single-spaced and word-wrapped at about 75 characters. You have to word-wrap the files yourself, browsers don't. In Notepad, you have to insert a hard return (enter) at the end of each line. In Word, you can "Save As" a text file with line breaks. Set the margins to the appropriate width first. In NoteTab, you can use the Modify Menu, Lines, Reformat Lines. Make sure you have blank lines between paragraphs, then Modify, Lines, Compress to get rid of the double spaces. I don't have any experience with Word Perfect but I will find out what to do if you will ask (maybe someone on the list knows.) If you use anything else to edit your text files and don't know how to word-wrap, ask me, I can find out. We do not link to anything outside our own county Archives. If it is a really great link that pertains to your county, notify your CC that you think a link is appropriate. NEVER delete anything from the Archives without asking me. Here are some links that you should add to your bookmarks (favorites) and familiarize yourself with their contents. http://www.usgwarchives.org/timetodo.htm http://www.usgwarchives.org/contrib.htm http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm I prefer that all the pages use tables to list their links. Each type of data will have its own table (Bible, Bios, Cemeteries, History, Vitals, etc.) Put the tables in alphabetical order with Bible at the top and Wills at the bottom. Each table will have 4 columns; Description of File, Size, Date, Contributor. If your table starts to get very long (30 links or so) move that table to its own page but we want as few pages as possible. All the links you have that begin with ftp http://files.usgwarchives.org/ar/ should be changed to begin with http http://files.usgwarchives.org/ar/. It loads faster. The Description column will hold a brief description of what is in the file such as "Howard County marriage records - Book A" or "Alamo Cemetery". If it is a bio or an obit, you only need put the name of the individual "Lackey, Melton" but I would like for those and cemeteries to be in alpha order. This description should be your clickable link. Size is file size in kb and NOTHING should ever be over 100 kb. If it is, cut it in half or whatever division needs to be done. Make sure you add the information at the top of the page and add a "page# of #pages" line. You will need to add additional links on your TOC to provide links to those additional pages. Date is the date that the file was uploaded to the Archives. Please use this format dd Mmm yyyy or 22 Oct 2002. Contributor should be the same as on the document and should be a clickable link to the contributor's email address. On the ftp side of your county you should have NO EMPTY folders. The folders you do have should be named exactly like this and you should not have any others: bible bios cemeteries census churches court history land (this will include deeds) military misc (do NOT use misc unless I tell you to) newspapers obits taxlists vitals wills There should be NO files in the root directory (with these folders). While you are working on your directories, pay attention to your sub- directories. Census should be sub-divided by year: 1840, 1850, 1860, etc. Military should be sub-divided by war or conflict: vietnam, civilwar, revolution, etc.). Newspapers should be divided by paper unless you only have ONE in your county. Obits should go by year if you have someone adding them daily: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, etc. Vitals should be divided by type: births, deaths, marriages, divorces. If you have any other directories that have a large amount of information, ask me for divisions (or at least let me know what you have.) There is a list of all files uploaded or changed since Oct 22, 2002 at http://www.usgwarchives.org/ar/uploads/ Each file is one month and each file is sorted by county. If you see a URL listed several times, it means it was changed several times during the month. Unfortunately, I usually update it about once a month so if you need to know what was uploaded immediately, you can go to http://www.usgwarchives.org/dailyuploads/.