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 E-mail: [log in to unmask]