What Is Happening to FamilySearch Centers?

I have volunteered with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 24 years, helping people with genealogy and family history.  When I started, in Oakland, California, I was at a Family History Center.  Later, the same location was called a Multi-Stake Regional Family History Center.  Then it became a FamilySearch Library.  Now I think they’re all FamilySearch Centers (FSC) except for the mother ship in Salt Lake City.

It is reasonable to assume that during 24 years many changes have occurred in how things are done at FSC’s.  One of the biggest was the transition to doing so much research online, which meant that FSC’s all now have lots of computers for visitors to work on (in Oakland, we had more than 75).  It would not be reasonable for me to expect that other resources and procedures would remain static.  But recent changes at my FSC have me worrying what will happen next.

I currently volunteer at the FSC in Gresham.  Over the past several months, we received several new computers (the church regularly upgrades its hardware).  It took a while to get them all up and running.  When they finally were operational, other staff and I discovered that only about a third of our computers are still running on Windows OS.  The others are now using Chrome OS.

No problem, I thought.  I am still bilingual (Mac and Windows), and I used to be trilingual (desktop publishing on an Atari ST, anyone?).  I figured it wouldn’t be that difficult to learn yet another OS.

I was kind of right. Opening the Chrome browser was easy as pie. But that’s all I was able to do.

I couldn’t find a “desktop.”  When I minimized the browser, I saw the wallpaper on what seemed to be the desktop.  But there were no icons for other programs, and I couldn’t actually access the desktop.  When I typed Ctrl-N, which in Windows or on a Mac would give me a new window that showed what files were there, I got a new browser window.  Say what?

I tried downloading an alternative browser to see how that would work.  I couldn’t.  The computer wouldn’t let me.  It just wouldn't download the file.

Since there were no other icons, that meant that the result of all my months of hard work convincing our FSC directors that installing Irfanview (the greatest free graphics program you’ll ever need, unless you use a Mac) was a great idea had been negated on two thirds of our computers.  So I tried to download it and install it.

Nope, couldn’t do it.  It just . . . wouldn’t.

I admit, I did not try searching online for how to use the OS.  Instead, I sent a message to the directors of the FSC, saying that I was confused by how the new spiffy Chrome OS worked and asking if maybe we could have a staff training day to help us learn how to use it.  I received an answer that didn’t really address the issue, but also mentioned that they would try to come by in person to talk about it.

They did that the same day.

They didn’t know the answer to my question about how we could install or use other programs either, so they called one of the helpful people at FamilySearch who are available when volunteer staff at FSC’s need assistance.

And we were told that with Chrome OS, the only programs you can install are ones from Google.  And the voice at the other end of the phone began to blandly explain that gee, if you wanted a word processor or a spreadsheet, you could use the handy-dandy ones from Google.

"But wait," I said.  "What about if I want to do graphics work?  Like trimming off all that extra black frame from images downloaded from Ancestry, so the files are cleaner?  Or straightening images that are a little off-kilter?  You know, the kinds of things I can do in Irfanview.  Does Google have a graphics program?"

"Um, er, well, that isn’t something I really know about," said the man at the other end of the phone call.

"Oh, and what if we have a patron who doesn’t already have a family tree program?  We used to have a few different programs installed, so we could show patrons how to use them and even enter some data to give them a quick family tree.  Does Google make a family tree program?  I don’t think they do."

"Um, er, I don’t really know," was again the answer from the man at the other end.

"So how useful are these computers to patrons who come in?  It really seems that they’re just kind of jacked-up Chromebooks if all they can do is browse the Internet."

He didn’t take kindly to that and started explaining how a Chromebook is a very useful computer, and besides, we still have the subscription sites available through the FamilySearch Library portal, so people still have a reason to come in.  At that point, however, I had to leave, as I had errands to run, so I didn't get to hear the end of his bland rationalizations.

FSC’s have already had to return the bulk of their microfilms.  (They wanted us to return all of ours, but I pointed out that not all of it had come originally from the Family History Library to begin with.)  They have been encouraged to get rid of their books (because, well, you know, everything is online).  And now the computers we have available for visitors pretty much only allow you to look at things online.  (Sure, we can install Google Office Suite programs . . . except we haven’t been taught how to do that, so we actually can’t.  Yet.)

I know there are excellent genealogists and family historians at FamilySearch, who know that not everything is online.  But I don't think they’re the people who are making decisions about what is available at FamilySearch Centers.

Many, many FamilySearch Centers across the county (and maybe across the world) have already been closed.  I’m worried that this change is an indication that the rest are doomed and it’s only a matter of time before they close also.  Because if all we can offer visitors is using a subscription site for free, is that enough to encourage people to come in?  Or maybe it will just be easier to pay for the subscription yourself and stay at home, looking things up at 2:00 in the morning in your bunny slippers.  Church members already have access to all or most of the subscription databases at home and rarely come in.  And when we have no more visitors, there will be no reason for us to be there, and our doors will close.