Australian Family Tree Connections
Information Highway Referencing and Browser Management
by Mark Lang
As a Genealogist, whether or not you consider to be one - paid or unpaid, amateur, novice, learned or specialist - we all use to some degree lists of information. The degree of certainty and the weight of its authenticity is also usually dependent upon its source. Now we have all heard about the need to cite our sources, and as Family Historians, this is an area where we are meant to surpass even that of a Genealogist. There won't be any need to rehash the primary sources that a Genealogist has to worry about compared to the Family Historian who has to wade through a mountain of both primary AND secondary, quite often third and fourth just to verify one simple little point.
Well I'm glad we all agree on that. But if I may lead your attention away from the not so obvious for a moment, I would like to share with you two very equally and important points. With the advent of computers over the last six decades(1), everybody seems to croon only over the last two with the advent of the Internet. Mailing Lists and News Readers have surpassed the original bulletin board services. More notable though has been what most go goo-goo over, and that is the use of "web pages" to deliver information to the masses without the slightest knowledge or forethought of how and why this system works. Who cares says I, it works for me and that's all I need to know.
But wait a minute. If you go blaring off into cyber-wonder, when you use someone else's work as a reference; how are you going to reference this incredibly volatile material that changes so drastically fast? Sites of yesterday come and go in nanoseconds, and are themselves history tomorrow. So what do you do?
I'm glad you asked. First of all, when you visit a site that happens to have an important feature, whether it be an article, paragraph, even a sentence or quotation, bookmark it for prosperity, the reasons I am to explain. This not only gets you into a habit of doing so (it saves you having to remember where that elusive site was), but we can refer to it later. This also applies to any form of graphics and intellectual property that may be attached(2). Secondly, don't concern yourself over writing down everything, half the work is already done for you. All you will have to do when the time is right is to cheat. My wife sits and stares in awe as my fingers manipulate the controls of the computer, and another friend beginning her life that involves computers is sometimes astounded over the some of the simplicities that come with using computers.
Referencing anything from an electronic medium is none too different from a book or journal. The art is simply knowing what information will be best to deliver when referencing a source. As with a book, we all know that there is an author(s), title (maybe a sub-title), a date, publisher and city published. Magazines and journals have similar but additional information. A website should be treated no less differently, and its format is: author, page date, title, date accessed, URL.
For example, lets say that you used an article from my website on the Fleurieu Family. Because it is a basic web page, you would eventually record the details as follows:
Wing, Margaret., 2000, 'Encounter' With The Fleurieu's [Online, accessed 3 March 2000] URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~safpfhg/articles/av4n1.html
The above lets the reader know that the reference was from a web page as designated by the http protocol in the URL address. It is at this point that I must stress that it is IMPORTANT to actually include the protocol in the citation, even though you don't have to use it in "most" modern browsers. One of the bells and whistles that accompanies browsers these days is the fact that they can actually recognise a web page. In essence, you can forget about typing the http:// when inputting our web address and simply use www.rootsweb.com/~safpfhg/ and the browser will retrieve the appropriate page. In addition, you will also note that I have not included a title page in the address. This is also a time saver with modern ua's. If your title or home page is saved as index.htm or index.html, it can be excluded from the address of the URL.
Other equally important protocols to look out for when citing a reference is obtaining documents via FTP, Telnet, e-mail, CD Rom, online databases, mailing lists, BBS, and computer programs. The format for these will be as above but in addition add the following to the respective area:
ftp/telnet Available FTP: <server-name> Directory: <directory structure>
File: <file-name>
e-mail Available e-mail: USERNAME@SERVER message:<subject-title>
CD Rom Available: <from> File: <where> Item: <what>
online DB's Available: <from> File: <what>
Lists/BBS see e-mail
programs Available: <distributor>
Please note that this is only a template and a guide. Informing the reader of where you got your information allows for further independent evaluation and how you came to your conclusions. Notice how I have indicated that the reference in an e-mail is to be in uppercase. A simple exercise is to differentiate between user1@something.com.au and userl@something.com.au. Is the last character in the username the number one or letter el. By using uppercase, we can tell the difference - USER1@SOMETHING.COM.AU and USERL@SOMETHING.COM.AU - it is more distinct. So why not use this method all the time? By using lowercase, we are using a uniform standard hence the title URL. Secondly, there are OS's that are actually case sensitive, such as Linux which I mainly use over Windows.
Now that I have either totally bored you, or intrigued the uninitiated, I will part with a couple ideas that may prove useful sooner or later, depending on where you're at in your family history. As I mentioned at the beginning of my article, bookmarking a site is absolutely paramount, especially when it comes to referencing it later. Remember, once you have completed your references, you can always remove the bookmark later. Now we use computers as a tool and not a chore, therefore we are not going to retype everything over and over, that is sheer madness; otherwise, why use them?
When you find a web page with information you require to reference, by placing this page into your favorites/bookmark file, it copies the URL into another file so the browser can access it if needed later without the need for you to go hunting for the site using a search engine. You've already done the hard work once, no need to be repetitive.
In Internet Explorer:
1) click Favorites[sic] button either on the Navigation Toolbar (for those who have the text option turned off, this is the yellow folder with a blue star) OR Menubar. If you use the Menubar, this will produce a drop-list from which to make further selections. If you prefer the Toolbar, or alternatively CTRL-I, will produce a frame on the left of the browser window.
2) In any of the above cases, you will see the option Organize Favorites. Click this option.
3) Another dialog box appears from which you can then select the appropriate Favorite, or click a folder to move to a sub-directory, and likewise recurse this step if needed. When you find the Favorite you wish to reference, Right-click the selection and select Copy. Alternatively, you could select Properties, double left-click the URL box then right-click and select copy.
In Netscape:
1) click Bookmarks button either on the Location Toolbar OR click Communicator on the Menubar. This will produce a drop-list from which to make further selections. Move the mouse over the word Bookmarks, and this will produce another list.
2) In either of the above cases, you will see the option Edit Bookmarks. Select and Click this option. Alternatively, Netscape also allows you to use a keyboard macro, CTRL-B will also give the desired result.
3) Another dialog box appears from which you can then select the appropriate Bookmark, or double click a folder (or click the "+" sign) to move to a sub-directory, and likewise recurse this step if needed. When you find the Bookmark you wish to reference, Right-click the selection and select Copy. Alternatively, you could select Edit from the Menu Bar of the Bookmarks window, and then Properties at the bottom of the list. As in IE, select the address in the URL box then right-click and select copy.
Using either of the above methods will place the required information into the Clipboard, a temporary virtual sheet of paper that holds information until you are ready to import into another application such as Notepad or a Word Processor. It also eliminates the risk of typographical errors. You can then work around filling in all additional references for your sources.
Another interesting feature most people do not make more use of is the ability to have multiple Favorite/Bookmark Lists. You can by all means continue to add bookmarks to your browser, and have streams and streams of flowing lists fill your screen. While you try and find the appropriate reference (which frankly, can be rather irritating), you could alternatively, produce a series of smaller lists appropriate for the particular session you are in. The key word here is Management.
Both IE and Netscape allow the user to import and use multiple bookmarks (obviously one at a time). This way you can effectively orchestrate your domain knowing that your electronic filing cabinet is not in a haphazard state. A good rule of thumb would be if you have to scroll the list to view your bookmarks, I advise making yourself another sub-directory and splitting the list into two smaller ones. A word of CAUTION. Functionality although similar between the u.a's, they are different.
In order to have multiple bookmarks, we must first cultivate that horrible large bookmark that you've made over the years and have bothered not to touch in fear of losing that very same information. Here's a thought I bet none of you have ever considered. When you do your periodic backups, why not make a copy of your bookmarks on a floppy. You can update by overwriting just like a backup, and should something ever happen to you wonderful large hard drive (and it will happen), at least you can reload your backups when you buy a new drive.
In Netscape, click Bookmarks, select and click Edit Bookmarks, then File, and Save As... and give it a new name. Use whatever file manager you prefer if you want to check that the process has indeed worked. Now with the current bookmark in the browser, you can trim and prune to your hearts content. You may require a printout of what you do, because when we import the file you just created, we will be doing the exact opposite. We now effectively have two bookmark files, both which we require, but are easier to manipulate because they are now smaller and more manageable. Changing them is as easy as Bookmark ->Edit Bookmark ->File ->Import...(or Open Bookmarks File), select or browse to the location where you have stored the files.
Internet Explorer does the same except it uses a Wizard (small applet that guides you through the process described above). When importing or exporting, at this point remember when at step 3 to change the radio button from "Application" to "File or Address". You can use the browse button to select the appropriate folder and file. Once the file has been imported, under Favorites using the Organize button, you can now trim or prune this file much the same way as explained above.
Like anything we do, this will only become a chore, if and only if it is left as something to cleanup as a last resort. To avert this watching-paint-dry-would-be-better attitude, consider that should you start from the beginning with this plan in mind (Now there's a big hint for those who haven't bought a computer yet), the end result will be one manageable system. And if you are showing a friend an important feature, think of how professional that person would think of the computer skills that you have attained. What's the down side to having to reassess your bookmarks and how you use them? None really, just that you will be taking a gradient learning curve on getting to know your computer system just that little bit better.
Glossary/terminology:
BBS Bulletin Board Services - precursor to e-mail
ftp file transfer protocol.
http hyper text transfer protocol.
OS operating systems
recurse use the same number of steps in the same sequence repeatedly until the
sequence ceases.
telnet enables the user to log into remote computer systems and run
computer programs or retrieve data.
ua user agents - refer to anonymity to browser technology such as
Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator et al.
URL Uniform Resource Location.
About the author:
Mark has a degree in Computer Science, and is also the Webmaster for the Fleurieu Peninsula Family History Group. A family history has been researched on his paternal side and he is personally tracing his wife's maternal heritage. Beyond his interests in family history, he advocates open-source software, the fact that everything should be free, and a healthy family lifestyle is paramount. He may be contacted at mblang@one.net.au.
Sources/Notes:
(1)Sebesta, Robert W. "Concepts of Programming Languages" 3rd Edition (1996, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc., California)
(2)On my website <www.rootsweb.com/~safpfhg/> the template used was designed by a friend as well as myself, therefore, it was only fitting to mention his name in the credits.
(3)University Study Skills Centre, Study Skills Brochure 02/05 Referencing the Author Date System,(January 1999, Flinders University SA, Adelaide)