Allow volunteers to filter/narrow down what records to index within a collection

LegacyUser

Jodi said: I wish there was a way volunteers could narrow down/filter which records in a collection they want to index. Many collections can contain multiple types of documents to be indexed. I know for myself some records are more difficult for me so I wind up returning the batch when I get those. It would save time if we could specify. For example, while doing Mississippi marriage records, you could get a marriage license, a marriage certificate, marriage registration, etc. I don't have a problem indexing the marriage licenses but I find the certificates a bit confusing so I prefer not to do them so I don't do them incorrectly. For naturalization records, I prefer doing the cards versus the petitions. Or I find with vital records, certain years or counties are more difficult for me to read because of the handwriting of that time period. As a result I wind up wasting a lot of time returning batches. I know it might not be feasible to get it to where volunteers can narrow it down that far, but I think, if it is, it could be a great time saving feature.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: I believe this feature was planned to be released along with the online Indexing program, but this has never occurred. The announcement was probably made over five years ago.

The indexing site VeleHanden, who specialises in Dutch records, has this for all their projects. Indexers can choose which years, places, record types etc they want- though personally I never do.

This could be useful when indexers only have the ability to index certain types of documents. But they can just return batches that are too difficult. Possibly this would lead to some of the records which are very popular being indexed quickly leaving the more difficult/less interesting records to be indexed at the end, and probably at a slower rate, holding up the project. Prehaps that is why the feature was never introduced.