Local Ottawa history professor, Bruce Elliott, sent me a comment on this new offering from LAC worth passing along.
"Why is this index searchable only by name? Users other than genealogists would like to access this material other ways. There are many community war commemoration projects under way, and it would be useful to be able to search this index by place as well as by name. Given that the place of residence is in the screen that appears in response to a search, a keyword rather than a name search would be more serviceable."
The proposal appears to meet all the criteria; simple, cheap, quick and popular. So why not LAC?
The reason why the LAC won't is because they can't. The LAC does not have the staff talent to set up data base searches; they just can't do what sites like ancestry have done. Another example is the 1881 Canada Census. Well LAC is to be commended for putting up the digitized images with free access why was the Census not accompanied by a better search module? Even the old fashion one at familysearch is better, more flexible. For example one gets results at familysearch if you put in just surname, place of birth, ethnic origin, province and district. NO such luck at the LAC site. If LAC really has the “customer first” approach then they should hire (even contract) proper data base specialists who know what to do.
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