Oct 26, 2018
by Kim Merchant
One of the SDB Historical Library’s challenges, faced by many specialized libraries, is how to make our materials available to online researchers. In the olden days, researchers expected to travel to the library, pull out a card catalog drawer and rifle through index cards to search for their subjects. In these modern times, researchers assume that they will be able to complete their inquiries online.
Historians and genealogists find The Sabbath Recorder, dating back to 1844, to be a valuable resource. The surname index is currently available on our website in a searchable PDF format. That is a good start but researchers still have to virtually rifle through scanned images of the original index cards.
We are thankful for a burgeoning team of volunteers who are expanding our online catalog/index, CuadraSTAR, to include The Sabbath Recorder surname index. These STAR volunteers are currently creating records for each Sabbath Recorder issue to build the framework to house the surname index. Once this foundational task is complete, the fun challenge of simultaneously transferring and standardizing the surname index will begin.
Samantha Fick is our charter STAR volunteer. She has singlehandedly entered 775 records so far. Hooray, Samantha! At General Conference this summer, the Council on History issued a call for more STAR volunteers. More than a dozen volunteers signed up. The All-STAR team now
includes Fran August, Justin Camenga, Madge Chroniger, Sandy Clare, Leigh Anne Crouch, Nathan Crouch, Samantha Fick, Dean Fox, Heather Gadd, Dianne Hibbard, Diane Merchant, Tom Mitchell, Gabriela Parra, Jewel Poole-Williams, Marva Shears, Raakeli Watt, and Jean Wynter-Barrett.
We would love to have you join this All-STAR team. All you need is a computer with an internet connection. We ask for a minimum commitment of four hours per month but you set your own schedule. For more information about becoming a volunteer (including its perks!), check out the “Latest Updates” section of our website (http://www.sdbhistory.org/) or e-mail Kim Merchant at kmerchant150@gmail.com.
