Help people understand that they have to read the project instructions for EACH indexing project?
I'm currently helping a sweet lady in Indexing Chat who is new to indexing. I was explaining to her that in the project she's working on, the project instructions say we are allowed to index information from a previous or subsequent image in order to complete the record, even though that is not a usual instruction for most projects.
She then asked me how she could tell which projects allowed this, and I realized that she likely didn't understand that project instructions are unique to each project, and each project has different indexing rules and guidelines. And if she didn't know this, how many other new indexers also don't realize this until they've sent in dozens or even hundreds of erroneous batches? Or never realize it at all?
I know it's completely impossible to somehow ensure that everybody will always read the project instructions. But I'm wondering if there is at least some way to help brand-new indexers understand that a) reading the project instructions is important but also b) the project instructions are different for each project and must be read thoroughly upon starting every new project in order to index the project correctly.
Even something as simple as a pop-up window on a person's first-ever batch would probably help a lot of people with this very basic and vital, but apparently somewhat misunderstood, concept.
We human indexing helpers are doing all we can to teach newbies the basics of indexing, but with so many people deciding to try to learn indexing on their own, and then coming to Indexing Chat when they finally realize they may have messed up their first hundred batches, I think they should get as much in-system training as possible.
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I am reviewing indexing and also believe people need to be instructed to read the project instructions to avoid needless errors
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I also think it would be helpful if support would go back to the previous way and allow the indexers to see the results of the reviews. Perhaps if the indexers saw their errors, they would understand what they are doing incorrectly and do it correctly in the future. How else will they know they are doing something incorrectly? We all make errors but unless someone calls it to our attention, how will we realize it?
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Slightly off-topic, but I hope there is now monitoring of the different project instructions to ensure consistency. Surely, if the records subject to two indexing projects are of the same nature, the project instructions should hardly vary. Yet there are "christening" records that have been indexed as "baptisms" so, once online, this data cannot be placed in the correct Vitals field during the source linker process.
Other inconsistencies relate to the indexing (or not) of ages at death / burial and whether additional, relevant data in the records are indexed or not. If FamilySearch indexing project leaders were more consistent with their issuing of instructions, I'm sure there would be far fewer problems relating to indexers carrying out their work correctly.
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i know I have made errors indexing. Reading instructions the first time does not always sink in. I have reread instructions over a period and understood more each time. A bit like life. Experience makes you wiser.
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I think there should be a big RED "notice" when you open a batch stating that the instructions may have changed. I have been reviewing the BLM land records and after a few batches, saw a consistency in having every name indexed, even when it was the same name. That is not what the instructions said at first, at least that what I remember. So I read the instructions again, and yes, index every name. That's very inconsistent with other batches (city directories) and even this batch when I first started working on it a few months ago. And again - why? Why when the name is the same and written several times on one page?
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