Dear Friends:
When we launched our new website design back in July we said that the AGD was not a part of that and that the database was being redone and would be ready shortly. Well that day is here now and the new AGD will launch on Tuesday, September 26th.
With the new version of the All Galicia Database, we had the opportunity to redesign the system from the ground up with the goal of making major improvements to the search experience as well as records maintenance. At the same time, we integrated the entire record set with our evolving record inventories system – moving closer towards having a completely unified database. Some new filtering tools were also added.
Although the new search interface has been rebuilt from scratch, we sought to create a familiar experience for existing users so you may not recognize the changes when you perform a search. Much of the new workings are behind the scenes in the search and storing processes and as such the responses will be quicker, more accurate and the system will be more stable.
Soon after the completion we expect to implement APIs with JewishGen and JRI-Poland and estimate that they will be completed by November. What these APIs do is if one does a search on the AGD and a record exists in JewishGen or JRI-Poland you would then be pointed to the right place on their sites to view the record and vice versa if you are searching on their sites.
In addition to a considerable number of small enhancements made, the new version of the All Galicia Database is integrated with our growing repository of scans, allowing logged-in members to view scans of records in all cases where such scans are available.
We want to thank our IT Manager Paweł Malinowski and the rest of his team for their expert work here. A great deal of thanks goes to Liliana Serhejczuk who was responsible for the data migration, which constituted a significant chunk of the entire work put into the project. She was also involved in testing during development and for scan uploads for both the AGD and the Record Inventory page. If you haven’t tried using the Record Inventory page yet you really need to as it is a remarkable new tool.
Persons who played an advisory role or had some form of influence on the project include Andrew Zalewski, Tony Kahane, Mark Jacobson, Yaron Wolfsthal and Steven Turner. Gesher Galicia thanks them for their work here.
If you have any questions on this, please write us at in...@geshergalicia.org.
Gmar Chatimah Tovah.
Board of Directors,
Gesher Galicia, Inc.
