NYCSHS web site needs improvement

The folks at NYCHS do a pretty good job keeping the society together and putting out the Central Headlight. But I really think that the NYCSHS web site needs an update of useful information.

http://www.nycshs.org

The web site is easier to read now (thank you for getting rid of that BLACK background!). But more importantly, there is NO information on the web site about what the New York Central is! No history of the Central, no maps, nothing. More information about the Society and what you can buy for them, though.

I offer as an example the excellent web site of the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society. http://www.erielackhs.org/

The web site is clean, easy to use, and full of useful information for the casual browser. There is a section devoted to the Erie, its history, a map, a link to photos and information for modelers, and more. The same for the DL&W, and for the EL. They manage to tell you what the railroads were about, offer some basic information to get you started, and also manage to sell their publications and services. We could learn a lot from this web site's design.

What do you all think?

-otto-

I should also mention, that aside from being a complainer... I would be willing to help with the web site, and write some history and additional content.

-otto-

I would agree that the NYCSHS site is a little short on content. It's really short at the moment as I haven't been able to reach it for the past two days...

The EL site has a very good section for modelers. The NYC site could certainly use something like that. But how much is the webmaster and how much is it a matter of what the board permits?

I think the ELHS site is a good template to start from. As far as where to get content, I think there are a variety of resources already out there that we could draw upon. For instance, I would be willing to author a collection of division maps (much like on the Canada Southern site), which we could scan from ETT's... I'm sure others would be willing to contribute as well...

-otto-

I had emailed the only one that I could (the web master) about that and to say that I had snail mailed the NYSHS for information on Weehawken and was told that all the records haven't been cataloged and that they may get back to me in the future. so what I recieved as an answer was a nasty email saying that they are all volenteers. I old them to look at the NYO&W web site. I am a member of the NYCHS but I think that they have a long way to go.

Jim

Well Otto, I tend to agree. The PRR has pleanty online to find. Equipment diagrams, pictures, rosters and more. All the NYC stuff I can find is by the kindness of the owners of the information. It would be nice to see more stuff about the NYC online. I do not know anything about the NYCHS or anyone who belongs to it and I am not a member.

It is unfortuante that someone would get an email back stating that they are only "volunteers" and to be patient. There are many free grants available from the Feds to scan and digitize documents, prints, historical data, ect. Hopefully that is what the NYCHS is doing at the moment in stating that all their pictures are unavailable due to archiving. I have been to the NYCHS website myself and it seem like to me that the NYCHS is more interested in keeping their collection private unless you want to pay $$. I can completely understand this position as it does cost $$ and manpower to make hard copies. However, in today's computer age with the assistance of FREE grants, a non-profit can get computers, digital scanners and even money to have the material professionally digitized through a Federal Grant. Therefore the only cost would somewhat minimal allowing for easier access to information. This is the idea of the grant, cheaper and easier access of information to all.

It is unfortuanate that I have heard of some individuals that "horde" what information the have which effectively "denys" access of such to the general public. A Museum is created to share information about a particular subject to all. A Historical Society generally requires you to be a Member to gain access to its archives.

The NYCSHS probably has a large library of data... but is any of it catalogued? I bet there is a lot of stuff I could use in research... and maybe even more I didnt know I was looking for!

It's hard when you're a volunteer organization... but I'm all for helping out where I can... and I was born nine years after NYC ceased to exist.

-otto-

I would agree with the statement that NYCHS makes you pay dearly for any info or photo's that they have. I understand all about being a voluneer I did alot for Baseball but I also did every thing that I could to make the organization the best for it's members and helped anybody that I could. Our web site don't even let you email them a question??? The only one you can contact is the Web Master What a mistake that was! How is it that other Societies can have such get web sites and helpful people and others seem to not care or are in it for what they can get out of it . I can only give my opinion but that is what they come off as when that send you email like I recieved and letters that they will keep it on file. How many letters must they have on file by now?? Are they catologed??

Jim

Went to the NYCSHS convention in April. As I vaguely recall, the documents, drawings and other stuff had been rescued and saved in someones basement for years due to no other location being available.

Now, as I recall, the documents are being transferred to a university (Case Western ?) , being digitized, preserved and available much easier than today.

NYCSHS is reluctant to send them on the Net because they could be easily copied with no compensation to them.

When they can be available was up in the air depending on the rate that they be can digitized and what was in demand.

That's all I can recall. Can anyone else add to this?

I still point to the Erie Lackawanna site as a good example to follow. They tell you something about the Erie, the DLW, the EL, offer some maps, then point you where to go for more info within their society...

... can we do that? I'll write it up and help assemble the maps for use on the web...

-otto-

Otto
I would like to tell everyone to check out the New York Ontario & westerns web site. Thay have so much great info and give you access to there stuff right online and you only have to be a member. There is no additional charges you can search and download whatever you need or you can contact them if you need something that has not been put up on the site yet . I might add that if and when you do that they just charge you for the copies nothing more. Another thing that I have found there is that everyone is so nice and willing to help you. I guess it's an area thing the people are so much nicer.
By the way I found some of the plans for the pier 7 NYC Grain Elevator if anyones interested.

Jim

I too, went to the convention in April and have had contact with some of the trustees/directors both before and after the convention, the NYCSHS is fortunate in that a few quick thinking individuals back in 1968 were able to rescue huge amounts of materials destined for the dumpster and oblivion. The above mentioned material is at Case Western Reserve University and climate controlled archival storage, it consists of 78 boxes full of envelopes with each envelope containing 4 to 100 photographic negatives, the trustees estimate 50,000 negatives in this part of the collection and many of these envelopes have not been opened in over 40 years! The problem is that very few people could catagorize this material because in many cases most of us would have no clue as to what we are looking at. In some cases, the subject matter on the negatives has little or no historical value, ie. 50 negatives of a restroom fire damage at GCT taken for insurance purposes. Other materials are the responsibility of individual trustees, Tom Gerbacht, the president told me personally that his goal is to get much of the material digitized and available on CD's, hopefully this will happen soon. This is my first year as a member of the NYCSHS and my first year going to the convention. Is the society perfect, no, is it worth the $30.00 per year dues, definitely yes. I would encourage every one of you who are not members to join and go to the convention in Albany next year. I have a few more insights I will offer on this later.

Mike Fleming
Bartlett, Tn

That's all well and good, I am glad this stuff is preserved... but our web site currently does not even tell anyone about the New York Central railroad... only about the products of the Society. I just want to introduce some basic material about the railroad to our society's web site...

-otto-

All fine and good. It's easy to say that the website needs work, but I don't see anyone bellying up and offering to help except by offering tidbits.
I do this as a volunteer effort - having to sacrifice time from my family to make changes to the site. Sure it's one thing to offer that you can do something for the organization, but can you do it for several years? Make changes on a moment's notice? Redesign on the fly? I asked at the business meeting in April how I could make it better, have offered this to the members at the last 3 meetings... yet no one has jumped up to offer. So I will keep doing my job and listening to your complaints. It is far easier to complain about doing something than to do it!

Jeff Hands
NYCSHS Webmaster

The photograph collection from the NYC Railroad, referred to by many as Ed Nowak's collection, is at the Western Reserve Historical Society - not Case Western (don't think there is an affiliation. There are 76 paper ream sized file boxes, each containing envelopes of one to several negatives, up to hundreds of negatives, simply cataloged with NYC's job number. There are close to 30,000 negatives in this collection. We took this collection to the Western Reserve in 2002 because the problems we were seeing with negatives delaminating and deteriorating because of improper storage and archiving. It was their duty to start placing the negatives into archival storage and to begin the cataloging process - to this point, all the collection has been just simply boxed. It has been largly untouched. Cataloging these negatives alone is a monumental task.

John Reehling continues to work very hard getting our mountains of plans digitized and put on CD so that we don't have the issues getting some of these 50+ year old drawings duplicated. The old ammonia blue-line machines that did this in the past are now almost extinct. It comes at quite a cost to get this done, and thousands of dollars have been spent from money that the society has put aside, and obtained in the form of grants to get these drawings digitized in order to make them available. At last I heard, there were 18,000 drawings in Philadelphia, under the protection by Charles M Smith, one of the founding members of the society, and cataloging these drawings alone is a big effort, let alone the digitization.

If you wish to help, remember to pay your annual dues on time. Offer to someone the list of back issues of the Headlight - buy a few back issues - the information in them is not dated - doesn't really expire - each one new until you've read it! Attend the business meetings... you will see the effort that each of us put in to make this thing happen. Buy the calendar - we don't do this as a volunteer effort just to see what we have done... We do it for the society.

Jeff Hands
Webmaster and Director NYCSHS