The Family History Library has around 2.5 million rolls of microfilm – the largest collection of genealogical sources anywhere in the world. A few years ago, FamilySearch announced their plans to digitize, index, and publish these records online. Paul Nauta, FamilySearch public affairs manager, recently said that their goal is "to create a searchable world index."
This searchable world index is actually progressing nicely. Its results are being published to FamilySearch's Record Search databases here thanks to FamilySearch Indexing volunteers. Anyone can volunteer by clicking here.
In an article published this weekend by the Deseret News, (thanks Leland for the link) Nauta gave us an update on the progress of the digitization efforts of the 2.5 million rolls of microfilm. He stated that "FamilySearch has 185 camera teams filming 60 million new images annually. Also, the Granite Vaults are having all of their microfilm (2.5 million rolls) digitized and that process could be completed as early as next year."
We should all do a Genealogy Happy Dance for the FamilySearch filmers and digitization teams. Or, even better, sign up to help index these records at FamilySearchIndexing.org.
There is another ever growing resource out there. http://www.KirtasBooks.com. We are partnering with large libraries, making their content available online BEFORE it is digitized. We are actually “Digitizing on Demand”. When you find a book you are interested in, and it hasn’t been digitized yet, we pull it from the shelf, digitize it, and within 3 to 4 weeks you receive your book, or digital file.
A large number of the books we have sold are going to folks working on genealogy. Once a book has been digitized, you can read it, and search through the book online.
Todd Whiting
KirtasBooks.com