[humanities-dev] Fwd: Concerning historic records APIs

Tue Jun 25 15:02:13 UTC 2013

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: todd.d.robbins at gmail.com <todd.d.robbins at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 10:40 PM
Subject: Concerning historic records APIs
To: "Open Genealogy Alliance (OKFN)" <
opengenalliance at lists.openrightsgroup.org>, "open-GLAM at lists.okfn.org" <
open-glam at lists.okfn.org>

I've run into dead ends today trying to gain programmable access to
historic records via the FamilySearch API (which does not provide access to
the millions of records FS has digitized/indexed) [1] and the private
BillionGraves API (which requires a formal proposal of use to be submitted
before granting API acces) [2]. This has further reminded me of the need to
create and support open projects in the field of genealogy.

I have previously mentioned my interest is heading/steering an Open
Gravestones project to offer an open alternative to BillionGraves and Find
A Grave [3]. That interest remains and I have begun a repository here:
https://github.com/trobbins/Open-Gravestones/

Also feel free to add to the Google Doc of resources/ideas for the project:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dhvmF-WGlqp2T7OU27QM6LRcNdAsJhHzY3_-gW35py0/edit?usp=sharing

For now, what I've created is simply a web presence for the idea at this
point, but I hope to rally a few or more of you to the cause. Let's begin
the discussion here at least.

Cheers!

[1] https://familysearch.org/developers/docs/api/resources

[2] See for instance:
http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2012/06/20/grave-terms-of-use/

[3] Find A Grave recently revived their Terms of Service to prohibited use
of their data and any kind of web scraping as well:
http://www.findagrave.com/disclaimer.html

-- 
Tod Robbins
Digital Collections Librarian, MLIS
todrobbins.com | @todrobbins <http://www.twitter.com/#!/todrobbins>
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