Repair/Update needed for "Find a Family History Center and FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries"?
I live several miles north of Asheville, NC and just returned to the Buncombe County Library for the first time since COVID, but found all the films I tried to review were locked and needed to be viewed at an affiliate library. The helpful staff were new and puzzled but eventually found another staff member who said the Library was no longer an affiliate and had not been for more than two years.
However, when using the familysearch.org "Find a Family History Center and FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries" utility, if I enter the Asheville downtown zipcode (28801), the map returns both the Buncombe County Library and another alleged affiliate with a strange address "Solihull - Balsall Common Library 283 Kenilworth Road COVENTRY CV7 7EL" and plots it on the map not far from the central library in downtown Asheville, in a house on Asheville's Kenilworth Road. The problem is, the Solihull-Balsall Library is in Ireland.
Poking around the help pages here, I'm wondering if it's even true the Buncombe County Library could actually be not affiliated for more than two years, as the staff member stated but still show up as an affiliate - or were the records I was trying to access just temporarily not available?
In either case, something should be done about how the mapping system used the zip code to find that Irish library and plotted it on someone's house in Asheville.
Thanks,
Cheryl K.
Answers
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The FHC and Affiliate Library Map is often unreliable and out of date. You should always verify the opening hours and existence of each FHC or Affiliate Library either by checking the library's website or ringing them.
I hope that a relevant staff member at FS will see this post and update the map so that no-one goes to the Buncombe County Library again thinking it is an Affiliate Library.
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@N Tychonievich may perhaps know who to refer this to.
Documentation may need to be updated to cover the situation of an Affiliate Library leaving. Also currently are Affiliate Libraries asked regularly (3 monthly/6 monthly/yearly?) by FamilySearch to confirm their status/ contact details ? If not procedures may need to be changed.
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Thanks for your comments, A van Helsdingen and MaureenE123 - I have just spoken to a local LDS member who tells me I can't even call the FHC south of Asheville, which has even more limited hours since COVID. They don't have a working phone at the moment. She's going to get in touch with someone who can help me.
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It is the responsibility of the Affiliate Library to keep FamilySearch advised of their status.
You can find the Asheville, NC Family History Center on the Find a Family History Center site, from their if you go to their webpage an email address shows and you can email the Family History Center.
The glitches on the site are known and are being handled by the proper department, Thank you for sharing you comments ands concerns.
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