Mass Withdrawal of Affiliate Library Access

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Joe - we don't know what the error message should read. All we know is that it used to read (roughly) "available at an FHC or an Affiliate" and it now reads (roughly) "available at an FHC", and it now reads like that for masses of stuff. Which made it appear that a mass withdrawal of access for Affiliates had taken place.

Basically, right here, right now, we have to believe the error message - we can't go to any Affiliate to check.

But as Paul says, a mass withdrawal seems a little odd.

If the guys can use those names / descriptions of Affiliates to see whether their IP addresses should or should not be on the OK list for the collections in question, then that would be a start (bearing in mind that the 1891 England & Wales is not typical because of it wasn't being processed the same as the other E&W censuses).

I guess that basically we have 2 possibilities - access really has been withdrawn from the Affiliates or access hasn't changed for most / all of the collections and it's the error message that's wrong... (Or any combination at the collection level). Grateful if anyone can shed any light....

LegacyUser

Paul said: Joe

Adrian describes the problem perfectly. Yes, at present we're all talking about the message displayed when we are at home - none of us will be able to view how it reads at an Affiliate until they reopen.

However, if your statement:
'From what I have been told, that error message for these collections should say “at a family history centers or an affiliate library”, with the exception of the 1891 England and Wales Census'
is correct, you are confirming the news is good and we WILL still have access to this material at both Affiliate libraries and FHCs, in future.

BTW - this thread does not necessarily just relate to us "non-LDS" - many digitised films cannot be viewed from home by LDS church members, either, so this potentially affects us all.

LegacyUser

Paul said: AvH

Would still be interested in seeing any "revised" comments you have, after reading the above and/or communications from Joe.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: Thank you Joe for answering.

I have looked at the collections I mentioned at the start of the thread and see that, according to the restriction message, AL access has been restored except for the 1891 England and Wales census. Of course the practical impact of this change will not become apparent until they open again, but thank you for looking into this so that AL access will be possible at that time.

LegacyUser

MaureenE said: I confirm that the records mentioned in my post of April 13, 2020 22:45, now also indicate that they are viewable at Affiliate Libraries, so thank you FamilySearch for restoring Affiliate Library access.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Thanks indeed - though I wonder whether the access was restored or the "error" message corrected.. (Wry smile). No matter - we'll cross our fingers

LegacyUser

joe martel said: The error message had to be corrected.
Yes, when we get back to normal life we can confirm at the respective ALs that it works. If it doesn't then they will have to check the permissions for that specific AL.

LegacyUser

Adrian Bruce said: Thanks for getting on to it.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Thanks to Joe, AvH, MaureenE & Adrian for your work / help on this matter.