Let us hope that may sell their collection to a nonprofit group able to sustain
it. Ultimately, many of the bulwarks of research are owned and dispensed by
either government or nonprofits. It is a fact that not everything essential can
be privatized. Whenever people ask me about the worth of keeping "a bunch of old
documents" or "old data" I simply ask in reply where their property ownership
would be without a deed.


[log in to unmask] wrote:

> Last month the Gale Group/PSIMedia notified me that they would no longer
> support their subscription-based "City Directories Online".  This digitized
> collection of city directories, although not as well processed as those on
> Ancestry.com, was notable for its scope.  (For those who not familiar with
> digitized city directories, they permit the researcher to sort directory
> entries by keyword: "stable", "West 11th", "Jones" or "stable", for example.)
>  The Gale letter made no mention of transfer of the source to a non-profit
> operator.
>
> Although the non-commercial online resources - like the Library of Congress'
> "American Memory" - seem perfectly secure, everytime I use subscription
> services like Poole's Plus, Ancestry.com and Historic Newspapers Online, I
> wonder about their profitability.
>
> Christopher Gray
> "Streetscapes" Columnist, Sunday Real Estate Section
> The New York Times
> office:  246 West 80th Street
> New York City   10024
> voice:  212-799-0520
> fax:     212-799-0542
> e:        [log in to unmask]

--
________________________________
Joseph A. Cutshall-King
Grant Writing/Fund Raising Services
  Associate of Charles R. Putney, Development Services for Nonprofits;
Bennington, VT

PO Box 154
693 County Route 49
Cossayuna, NY 12823

Bus. Tel.: 518-692-6022
Home Tel.: 518-692-9505
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