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Working with Dave's Collected History of Bartlett and the Historical Society's New Website.

The new site's focus is different than my version (that you are now viewing). Their new site relies on the "Past Perfect" software application for you to search topics.  It has good and bad features.  It finds lots of things, often with no relevance to your search.  The end result, the pictures and information detail, are often disappointing.  It's good at telling you which folder you can go to for the information but that involves a trip to their museum to see it.  It's excellent at finding basic details about people but usually with little detail. 

 The new Bartlett Historical Society site has all the basics of "who, what, when and where".   It makes ample use of text and search functions.  You type in what you are looking for, and it will usually find something relevant but not at the level of detail you might want. That's a major departure from Dave's method of wrapping the stories around pictures in a book-like arrangement.   

 

You will find content at the new site about the museum, the directors and what the next public presentation will be.  The new site copied most of the historic articles and research created and edited by Dave directly from this web site, but they don't present it in the same way. Many of my topics did not get included at all or are difficult to find in their original format. And that's part of why Dave's version is being saved separately under its own headline. 

 

You will find both the new site and this site useful in their unique methods of presenting information.  This old site tends to be "busier", it has an old-fashioned index, ample menu choices and items presented as articles rather than tucked into a search box.  The new BHS site is perfect if you want basic details about a person i.e. birth, death, etc.  However, looking up a specific topic is not always easy.  The new site is excellent if you are at the museum, or planning a visit and want to look at the actual physical item.  You can find the exact envelope, folder or box where the item is located but often not the details or pictures of it.  

Here are a couple of random searches to locate cemeteries in Bartlett.  On the left are the top 3 results at this website.  On the right are the results at the new BHS website.  The results at this website are very specific.  The BHS results seem to have nothing to do with the inquiry.  This kind of result is not a rare occurrence.

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Here's another, searching for Thad Thorne.  On the left are the top 3 results at this website.  On the right are the results at the new BHS website.  Again, you can see the difference in the two results.

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 The results for this website go directly to the relevant article.  The BHS search goes to a reference for a physical location at their museum, or an article about Attitash Ski Area where his name is mentioned.  

Since their site is very new, I expect improvements and additions will be made as time passes. Presenting historic content in a meaningful format is a lengthy process.  

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