ShipIndex opened for business in early 2009. The database had existed since about 2000 in a different online location, and then moved to the ShipIndex.org URL in 2002. Originally, I had no plans for turning it into a business at the time, so I never bothered to get the ShipIndex.com domain name. Oops.
But when we did start the company, we needed to set reasonable prices for database access. Everything that had originally been free remained free, but we were expanding quickly – the free database still has over 150,000 citations, but the subscription database has now grown to over 3.5 million citations! We set what we thought were reasonable prices for accessing the database, and moved on to the next issue. Now, 14 years later, we think it might be time to review those prices. All of our costs have gone up in the past 14 years, and ShipIndex was never profitable to begin with. So, it’s time to change.
At the end of June 2024, our individual subscription prices will increase. The changes will look like this:
Subscription Type
Current Price
New Price
Two weeks access
$6
$7.50
Three months access
$22
$26
Six months access
$35
$43
One year access
$65
$80
Monthly recurring access
$8
$10
But if you subscribe now, you can lock in the current price levels. If you decide to establish a monthly subscription, for example, the cost will forever be based on the price when you start – if you start a monthly subscription today it will stay at $8/month, and it will not increase when the standard pricing changes.
You can also purchase one year gift certificates (at bottom of page) now, to use whenever you like, for access to the full database from the point when you redeem the certificate, either for yourself or as a gift.
Price increases aren’t much fun, but it’s been 14 years since we’ve made changes, and now certainly seems to be the time to do it. Feel free to comment below if you have anything to add.
Did you, like me, receive a curious set of porcelain knick-knacks that your mom picked up at a charity shop because they had pictures of ships on them? No? OK, well, maybe your mom is different from mine.
But I did get the following three items from my mom, and as you can see by the stickers on the bottom, she found the set for £2, presumably at a charity shop in London or in Wiltshire. Knowing my love of ships, she took them to Seattle, gave them to me as a small Christmas gift, and then I brought them home with me to the Finger Lakes region of New York. Now that they’re here, what could I discover about them?
First, the ship(s). As you can see, the images are of several different ships. The taller piece (perhaps for holdings cigarettes?) has a different image on each side. One image matches the image on the ridged piece, labelled on the bottom as “ARACAN 1854” and displaying a three-masted bark. The back side of the taller piece has a somewhat shorter vessel, with full topsails rather than split topsails. The other piece has an image of a four-masted bark, with no name on the back. Also, all three pieces have the name “Thos. & Jno. Brocklebank Ltd”, a 19th and 20th century shipping line that was acquired by the Anchor Line in 1912, according to Wikipedia.
In the image below, of the two sides of the taller piece, the image on the left, with the flags blowing aft, has got split topsails, and matches the image of the Aracan from the ridged piece. The image on the right shows much larger single topsails on each mast, on what appears to be a different vessel. I guess I don’t know what ship it represents!
To learn more about the one named ship, I went to ShipIndex.org, as one does, and searched for “Aracan”. In the subscription database I found 32 citations from six resources. Some citations have very little information about the specific vessel, like the top two, while others, like the bottom two, have at least a bit more:
The entries from the various shipping registries, as in the bottom viewable entry, are more useful, and from them I can see that Aracan was a bark, and was built in Sundsvall, Sweden, in 1876. The ship’s captain at this time was Capt H.F. Hedberg.
Other entries, though, such as this one from 1875, before the ship was launched, show a different ship — one that was built in 1854, in Whitehaven, England, and registered in Liverpool.
So I can see now that there are at least two ships named Aracan, built nearly 20 years apart.
Given our ability to differentiate between ships of the same name, this is a great opportunity to do just that. I use Wikidata Q-identifiers because I believe they are the best, most shared, most common, and most open, tool for implementing and using Linked Data. So I search Wikipedia for an entry about ships named Aracan, and I find nothing there. That’s not a complete surprise, but it’s a bit disappointing. I check Wikidata for any records of ships named Aracan there, and again come up short:
I can create Wikidata entries for the two Aracans that I now know about, but I really don’t have a lot of information about them. In the grand scheme of things, that really is the correct thing to do – it contributes to the greater good and makes it easier for others to learn more about these specific ships. But I don’t have much detail to add about either ship, and I have a checkered history in creating and editing records in Wikidata and Wikipedia, so I shy away from it, at times. I could perhaps use the image of the 1854 Aracan from this porcelain, but a quick search online indicates that the pieces probably date from the late 1950s so I don’t feel that I can say with certainty (which Wikidata expects) that the image is copyright-free. Perhaps, in the future, I’ll create records for these ships. ShipIndex, though, has the ability to quickly create our own identifiers, which we can use until we find that Wikidata Q-identifiers exist. So, for now, that’s what I’ll do.
I’ll then associate the citations that are clearly about either the 1854 or the 1876 vessels, with those new identifiers, and now the page looks a bit different, with a record of two different ships sharing the same name, and with citations about each one combined together.
If or when Q-identifiers are created for these ships, and if or when images are added to those entries, these ‘cards’ for the two different ships with the same name will add and incorporate those images into this page.
You may not have received a holiday gift with a ship on it, but if you did, see if you can find it it ShipIndex.org!
This blog post offers links and notes related to my live webinar presentation for ShipIndex.org users on October 18, 2023. It will be updated slightly after the presentation, to reflect any changes or discussions during the presentation. It’s not intended to represent all of the comments shared during the presentation, but instead to be a place where links and notes are stored, for the benefit of attendees.
Section 1. Using vessel research in genealogy – how it can be applied, and how it can benefit genealogy research
Important: Know what a resource can do: ShipIndex cannot really help you find information about a person, and the large genealogy databases cannot really help you find information about vessels. Use the right tool for the job!
Monongahela, the last tall ship to leave Seattle’s Lake Union before the completion of the Aurora Bridge. Photo hosted by Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.
Vessel research can help you find an image of the ship an ancestor emigrated on, or perhaps a picture of the ship that grandparents took their honeymoon on.
For ancestors who served in the military, vessel research can help you learn about their experiences: if you know what ship they were on, and when, then researching the history of the ship will help you learn more about their experiences.
Vessel research might help you find a diary or logbook kept by someone who was on the voyage that your ancestor was on.
Section 2. Using vessel research in maritime and other history – not just genealogy
Research in local history can help learn a great deal from maritime history – researching the vessel, rather than the people on it. Perhaps you’re researching a schooner that’s been in the community for 70 years, but must be removed – such as Equator, in Everett, Washington.
Screenshot from Everett, Washington, HeraldNet.
Or you want to research the history of a vessel whose wreck was just discovered in Lake Superior:
Section 3. Using ShipIndex.org as a tool, among many, for doing this work
Introduction to ShipIndex, what it can and cannot do; comparing the free database and the subscription database.
‘Cards’ are used to differentiate between ships with the same name, and to bring together different names for the same ships. How does this work?
Some important details on searching within ShipIndex:
Remember that if you have a short ship name, like “James” or “Wasp”, there’s likely a whole set of other ship names to explore. The search returned an ‘exact match’, and if you click on “See other matching ships”, you’ll see many more with the ship name in it.
If that’s overwhelming, you can narrow down your search to only the ship name field, by searching "@ship_name james“, for example.
To limit a search to names that start with a term, use the carat (“^”) character, for example: “^james“
Section 4. Other options for vessel search, beyond ShipIndex
There are many ship registers available; not all are included in ShipIndex.org, since acquiring a list of their content can be quite difficult (or impossible!). Some examples:
Section 5. Ways of searching the free web most effectively
When using Google, try the “AROUND” function, with the vessel type – so, for example, “constellation AROUND(5) sloop-of-war” – very different results from just “constellation“!
Use citations from Wikipedia to discover great sources about those ships that have Wikipedia entries.
Section 6. Finding the books and journals you’ve identified
Using WorldCat.org to locate libraries that own a particular title – but consider the many challenges that come with searching WorldCat. It is not particularly reliable anymore. It’s very difficult to determine what library has a particular journal (ie, magazine) that you want. Become friends with your interlibrary borrowing partners! (And be sure to support them!)
Searching for manuscripts: During the session, I discussed the challenges of finding manuscript resources that are mentioned in WorldCat but list no location. This post from 2014 shows how to find the actual location of the manuscript collection, by searching the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, or “NUCMC” (pronounced “nuck-muck”). The WorldCat interface has changed in the past ten years, but the underlying content, and issues around it, remains. I don’t know why WorldCat doesn’t show the location of these items, but it doesn’t. The post explains how to get around that.
Section 7. Searching for historical newspapers online – a great tool for learning more
The Ohio Memory project includes lists of, and links to, many Ohio newspapers — most 19th century ones come from the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America project.
If searching is possible, certainly give it a try, but many interfaces do not have good search functionality. Conversion to text can also be very bad, which limits searching.
For an amazing interface and project, see the remarkable California Digital Newspaper Collection. I’ve become slightly obsessed with correcting content here, and I’ve discovered that the San Francisco Call has numerous listings of vessel arrivals and departures across the West Coast.
Section 8. Using University Libraries to do further research (APPROACH #1 – with database access)
Many – but definitely not all – academic libraries will allow visitors to enter and use their databases. When librarians sign contracts to provide access to these expensive databases, we try to ensure access for “walk-in” users – for anyone who comes in to the library. This will especially be true for public academic libraries. If you have an academic library near you, ask if you can use most of its resources as a walk-in user.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers is a valuable resource when searching newspapers. Others include Accessible Archives, NewsBank, and more. In ProQuest, try using “NEAR” function: so, “monongahela NEAR oiler“. (Use NEAR/#, where # is the number of words. NEAR without a number defaults to 4 words.)
Section 9. Using University Libraries without access, from afar – it’s still doable, sort of! (APPROACH #2 – without database access)
“Discovery Layers” are a tool for searching much (but definitely not all) subscription databases, all at once. Content from many subscription databases is pre-indexed and users can search a lot of databases all at once, similar to using Google.
There are two main companies who offer Discovery Layers: ProQuest (in their Ex Libris division) and EBSCO. Each discovery layer does NOT include the content from its competitor. Since ProQuest has superior coverage of historical newspapers, find a major research library who uses the Ex Libris CDI and also allows you to search their discovery layer without logging in. This site shows which of the largest US & Canadian libraries use which discovery layer. Use a library in the “Ex Libris CDI” section because they will include ProQuest databases in the discovery layer. Select a university, then click on “Library Web Site,” and find the place to start searching.
Not all libraries will allow you to search without logging in, so if one doesn’t, try another. Yale will, for example, so they’re a great place to start. In the Yale interface, you can even narrow it down to just newspaper articles. BUT BUT BUT BUT — and this is important — you CANNOT get to the article itself, at least not here! Discovering that the article exists, however, might be incredibly valuable.
For more information about historical newspapers in a certain state or city, consider looking at the LibGuides about newspapers in the state or province at the largest university library, or the state library, for that state or province. For example, OSU, or State Library of Ohio.
Section 10. Searching for journals and newspapers
What do you do if you’ve found an article, or a journal, that isn’t available at the library near you? Your best option is probably interlibrary borrowing, but there are other options, as well.
Section 11. Conclusion.
I believe that vessel research can improve your family history, and the story you tell in your genealogy. Some of it might just be “adding leaves to the tree” — finding images of ships that were tangentially connected with your family story, and look good in a document or book you create. Others will directly inform your understanding of your ancestors’ lives, such as by learning about the battles those on board a warship (including your ancestor) during World War II, or during another conflict.
I hope that learning a bit about some ways of doing some of this research might be useful and helpful to you.
This blog post offers links and notes related to my live webinar presentation to the Ohio Genealogical Society on July 11, 2023. It will be updated slightly after the presentation, to reflect any changes or discussions during the presentation. It’s not intended to represent all of the comments shared during the presentation, but instead to be a place where links and notes are stored, for the benefit of attendees.
Section 1. Using vessel research in genealogy – how it can be applied, and how it can benefit genealogy research
Important: Know what a resource can do: ShipIndex cannot really help you find information about a person, and the large genealogy databases cannot really help you find information about vessels. Use the right tool for the job!
SS Imperator, also Berengaria. Source: Library of Congress, via Wikipedia
Vessel research can help you find an image of the ship an ancestor emigrated on, or perhaps a picture of the ship that grandparents took their honeymoon on.
For ancestors who served in the military, vessel research can help you learn about their experiences: if you know what ship they were on, and when, then researching the history of the ship will help you learn more about their experiences.
Vessel research might help you find a diary or logbook kept by someone who was on the voyage that your ancestor was on.
Section 2. Using vessel research in maritime and other history – not just genealogy
Research in local history can help learn a great deal from maritime history – researching the vessel, rather than the people on it. Perhaps you have a mid-19th century panorama of the city and you’d like to research some of the boats you see on it?
Portion of 1848 “Panorama of Progress,” by Charles Fontayne and William S. Porter, held at Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.
Or you’re researching a schooner that’s been in the community for 70 years, but must be removed – such as Equator, in Everett, Washington.
Screenshot from Everett, Washington, HeraldNet.
Section 3. Using ShipIndex.org as a tool, among many, for doing this work
Introduction to ShipIndex, what it can and cannot do; comparing the free database and the subscription database.
‘Cards’ are used to differentiate between ships with the same name, and to bring together different names for the same ships. How does this work?
Options for doing advanced searching – see search features page for information about options on doing more advanced searching.
Section 4. Other options for vessel search, beyond ShipIndex
There are many ship registers available; not all are included in ShipIndex.org, since acquiring a list of their content can be quite difficult (or impossible!). Some examples:
Section 5. Ways of searching the free web most effectively
When using Google, try the “AROUND” function, with the vessel type – so, for example, “constellation AROUND(5) sloop-of-war” – very different results from just “constellation“!
Use citations from Wikipedia to discover great sources about those ships that have Wikipedia entries.
Section 6. Finding the books and journals you’ve identified
Using WorldCat.org (from OCLC, based in Dublin, Ohio) to locate libraries that own a particular title – but consider the many challenges that come with searching WorldCat. It is not particularly reliable anymore. It’s very difficult to determine what library has a particular journal (ie, magazine) that you want. Become friends with your interlibrary borrowing partners! (And be sure to support them!)
If you’re having problems with OCLC, try searching the OhioLINK central catalog, to see which academic libraries in Ohio have a particular title.
Section 7. Searching for historical newspapers online – a great tool for learning more
The Ohio Memory project includes lists of, and links to, many Ohio newspapers — most 19th century ones come from the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America project.
If searching is possible, certainly give it a try, but many interfaces do not have good search functionality. Conversion to text can also be very bad, which limits searching.
For an amazing interface and project, see the remarkable California Digital Newspaper Collection. I’ve become slightly obsessed with correcting content here, and I’ve discovered that the San Francisco Call has numerous listings of vessel arrivals and departures across the West Coast.
Section 8. Using University Libraries to do further research (APPROACH #1 – with database access)
Many – but definitely not all – academic libraries will allow visitors to enter and use their databases. When librarians sign contracts to provide access to these expensive databases, we try to ensure access for “walk-in” users – for anyone who comes in to the library. This will especially be true for public academic libraries. If you have an academic library near you, ask if you can use most of its resources as a walk-in user.
In Ohio, you have access to a range of databases via Ohio Web Library (though not, notably, ProQuest newspaper databases).
ProQuest Historical Newspapers is a valuable resource when searching newspapers. Others include Accessible Archives, NewsBank, and more. In ProQuest, try using “NEAR” function: so, “monongahela NEAR oiler“. (Use NEAR/#, where # is the number of words. NEAR without a number defaults to 4 words.)
Section 9. Using University Libraries without access, from afar – it’s still doable, sort of! (APPROACH #2 – without database access)
“Discovery Layers” are a tool for searching much (but definitely not all) subscription databases, all at once. Content from many subscription databases is pre-indexed and users can search a lot of databases all at once, similar to using Google.
There are two main companies who offer Discovery Layers: ProQuest (in their Ex Libris division) and EBSCO. Each discovery layer does NOT include the content from its competitor. Since ProQuest has superior coverage of historical newspapers, find a major research library who uses the Ex Libris CDI and also allows you to search their discovery layer without logging in. This site shows which of the largest US & Canadian libraries use which discovery layer. Use a library in the “Ex Libris CDI” section because they will include ProQuest databases in the discovery layer. Select a university, then click on “Library Web Site,” and find the place to start searching.
Not all libraries will allow you to search without logging in, so if one doesn’t, try another. Yale will, for example, so they’re a great place to start. In the Yale interface, you can even narrow it down to just newspaper articles. BUT BUT BUT BUT — and this is important — you CANNOT get to the article itself, at least not here! Discovering that the article exists, however, might be incredibly valuable.
For more information about historical newspapers in a certain state or city, consider looking at the LibGuides about newspapers in the state or province at the largest university library, or the state library, for that state or province. For example, OSU, or State Library of Ohio.
Section 10. Searching for journals and newspapers
What do you do if you’ve found an article, or a journal, that isn’t available at the library near you? Your best option is probably interlibrary borrowing, but there are other options, as well.
Section 11. Conclusion.
I believe that vessel research can improve your family history, and the story you tell in your genealogy. Some of it might just be “adding leaves to the tree” — finding images of ships that were tangentially connected with your family story, and look good in a document or book you create. Others will directly inform your understanding of your ancestors’ lives, such as by learning about the battles those on board a warship (including your ancestor) during World War II, or during another conflict.
I hope that learning a bit about some ways of doing some of this research might be useful and helpful to you.
We are thrilled to announce that our founder, Peter McCracken, was recently a guest on the “Journeys into Genealogy” podcast, hosted by the engaging Emma Cox.
Peter and Emma had a discussion on the invaluable role that maritime history plays in genealogical research. They took a deep dive into how ShipIndex.org assists historians and genealogists alike in uncovering the fascinating stories behind their ancestors’ sea voyages.
Emma Cox’s podcast, “Journeys into Genealogy“, explores the intricate world of genealogy, giving listeners unique insights into how to uncover their personal family histories. We were honored that Peter had the opportunity to share his maritime history expertise and demonstrate how ShipIndex.org can shed light on your family’s nautical past.
Our “Introduction to Searching ShipIndex.org” Research Help Guide provides an overview of the basic parts of searching ShipIndex.org. There are some advanced features, as well, and they’re worth knowing about.
It seems straightforward – type in a ship name, get results. Actually, there’s a whole lot more that you can do in the database, and it is, admittedly, kinda wonky and a bit tricky. Please watch the following video to better understand how to use the search features more effectively.
Here’s an overview of the most important points:
Remember that your search only brings back that ship name. There’s lots more after you click on the “See other matching ships” button.
To limit a search to just the ship name field, use the term “@ship_name” and then the name of the ship. For example, “@ship_name union“.
To search for a ship name that starts or ends with a specific word, use these characters: use “^” (the carat character) in front of a word, to indicate that the ship name must start with that word; or “$” (dollar sign) at the end of the word, to indicate the ship name must end with that word. For example:
“@ship_name ^union” to display ships whose name starts with “union” – Sample search
“@ship_name castle$” to display ships whose name ends with “castle” – Sample search
Use “*” (asterisk) to expand a search, but you must start with at least two characters.
A search for “acht*” returns ships where a word that starts with “acht” appears in the ship name or the citation. In this case, it includes “Acht Gebroeders”, “Achtienhoven”, “Martini Achter”, and “Y’acht Tu Put Family First”. Sample search. It does not look for “acht” within a word; it only looks for words that start with “acht”. (The apostrophe in “Y’acht” appears to create a new word; note that no entries with the full word “Yacht” appear in this search.)
If you search for “@ship_name *acht” you’ll get lots of citations for ships with names like “Deltagracht”, “Dotte Yacht”, and more. – Sample search.
And, if you put an asterisk before and after “acht”, you’ll get a combination of both searches from above, plus ship names where “acht” just appears within a word, as in “A Lil Naughty Yachty”. – Sample search.
You can even exclude specific words from ship names by putting a “!” (exclamation point) in front of the terms you want ignored. A search with the phrase “@ship_name ^mary !annie” will return all entries where the ship name starts with “mary” except for those that also have “annie” in the name. – Sample search
The full help page will give you more guidance as well. But it’s clear that there’s a lot you can do when searching the database.
An important concept here is that the ShipIndex.org database serves as a de facto authority file for vessels. There’s no larger collection of vessel names out there, and if you’re having a hard time finding information about a ship with the name you have, you might do some searching to see if there’s a different version of it. At a genealogy conference in England, a person came to me seeking information about a ship named “maid of sussex”. We found no ship with that name. Now, it might have still existed, but the ShipIndex.org database is pretty comprehensive at this point. By playing with the database, and searching for just “sussex”, for instance, then clicking on “See other matching ships”, we found “Sussex Maid,” which was, most likely, the ship she was seeking.
There are many ways of using and searching the ShipIndex.org database, even if you’re not subscribing. Give it a try, and let me know if you have questions or comments.
The video below shows effective ways of using the ShipIndex.org database. It’s good to know what the database can, and cannot, do.
Here’s an overview: ShipIndex.org tells you what books, journals, websites, databases, resources, and more, mention the ships you want to learn more about.
There are, basically, two versions of the database: the free database and the subscription database. You’ll find over 150,00 citations, and lots of great content, from many significant books in maritime history, in the free database. You’ll also find links to subject headings in WorldCat, though have significantly declined in value, due to a change by OCLC, WorldCat’s owner, this past month. Read more about that here.
The subscription database has over 3.2 million citations in it, and it’s always growing. The subscription database contains lots more online content than the free database, plus many, many new books in maritime history. All content that’s been added since 2009 has gone into the subscription database, except for updates to the WorldCat file.
Watch this video to learn more about the specifics of searching the database, and a bit more about what you can expect:
Subscribing to the database is inexpensive and easy — you can subscribe for a set period of time, from two weeks to a year, or you can subscribe on a monthly basis, in which the subscription will continue until you cancel.
You might also find that an academic or public library near you subscribes to the database. If you’d like to suggest that your local public or academic library consider a subscription to ShipIndex, please take a moment to tell them about the database! We can set up a trial for them, and if they let patrons access resources during a trial, you could use it then. Ask your librarian to contact us about options for subscribing!
We believe strongly in the importance of maritime museums, so we offer free access to the full database for all full members of the Council of American Maritime Museums (CAMM). A museum staffperson can contact us to get access set up on their campus and in their buildings. If they so choose, they can offer this access to museum visitors, as well, such as in their library or through their wifi network.
Basic advanced searching
When you search for a ship name, you’ll often see the following phrase at the top of a results page: “See other matching ships”.
This means that, in this case, you’re looking at ships whose full name is “Eagle”, excluding any prefixes like “HMS”, “USS”, or of course, “USCGC”.
When you click on the “See other matching ships” link, which is in the red box shown above, you get this result:
Each ship name here either contains the word “Eagle” in the name, or somewhere in the citation. With a common one-word name like “Eagle”, this can be overwhelming. The next step is to narrow down the search, by using this search term: “@ship_name eagle“, to get this result:
Now every citation has the word “Eagle” in it, which definitely narrows down results. But there’s more that can be done to get to better results. See our video on advanced searching, to learn more.
This is the first of a few new blog posts. It’s April 1, April Fools Day, but there is, alas, no foolin’ around here. It’s just bad news, start to finish, with the WorldCat subject entity links that have been in the free ShipIndex database since 2009. Read on, to learn more.
When ShipIndex switched from a personal project to a real company, back in 2009, I put all of the citations that had been in the “project” database, into the free database. Anything new was going to go in to the subscription database. I had been in contact with researchers at OCLC, the very large library cooperative that ostensibly helps libraries manage their resources, and shares those holdings, via their publicly available database called WorldCat. I worked with several remarkable people there, who through the years generated a list of all of the “identities” for ships in WorldCat.
This meant we could find books or manuscripts that were by or about ships. So, a book about a ship is easy enough to imagine – the book The Royal Yacht Britannia: The Official History is clearly about that vessel. Having a specific subject heading about that specific yacht makes it easier to differentiate between vessels with the same name. It also created links to books by ships, which often meant logbooks our individually-kept personal journals by people who were on board a vessel. It was a great way of uncovering a lot of useful content about ships that wouldn’t be found otherwise.
But the folks at OCLC said this content needed to be in the free database, not in the then-nascent subscription database. That was fine with me; it was worth including that content and keeping it freely available. The file has been updated occasionally over the past few years, and has always been in the completely free database.
Two or three weeks ago, I was doing some searching, and looked at WorldCat records. I saw notices indicating that the OCLC Identities project, on which these links were based, was going away. This past week, all the links to WorldCat failed. OCLC has ended this project, and with it, links to lots of content that used to be in the database. They’ve also removed linking by Library of Congress Control Number. You’re just searching by phrase now – this seems like the total antithesis of the ideals behind Linked Data.
I have figured out a way to make these links mostly work. The links are now searching by subject headings, rather than by control numbers or identities. As a result, in many cases, they won’t work effectively. In the old file, there was a search to an identity for a ship named “104”, and it specifically went to the entry for a specific ship with that name. Now, the search is for any entry that has both terms “104” and “ship” in a subject heading, so instead of one or two specific results, you get 38 results. Some refer to ‘cruise 104’ of a different vessel. It’s really too bad. Searches for ships like “Mary” are going to terrible, because they’ll include ships named “Mary Rose”, “Mary Ellen”, “Mary & Frank”, “Mary Smith”, and any other ship that has ‘mary’ as just part of its name – instead of going directly to the ship you’re researching. A search for a single, common word ship name, like “Eagle” or “Union” or “James” or “Monitor” or “Wasp” is going to return any record that has that word anywhere in the list of subject headings, even if the term doesn’t have anything to do with a ship name. Connections we’ve made, between specific vessels represented in WorldCat and other citations for those specific vessels, are probably no longer relevant.
OCLC did some work in creating Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) records for some ships, as well. Again, this was great in differentiating between ships with different names. But as far as I can tell, that is also all wiped out.
I’m disappointed and frustrated by this change, as I am with most of what OCLC has done to WorldCat over the past few years.
I’ll leave with this image I collected from WorldCat a few weeks ago, telling me that a copy of a book I wanted was at the State Library of South Australia, but that library is further than the distance to the moon:
My frustration with WorldCat – and OCLC – is ancient news, but it does just keep getting worse. This is really unfortunate. This is NOT a good April Fools joke.
Wow – it’s been quite a while since I last posted anything to the blog. One would be forgiven for thinking we’d disappeared. But we haven’t. In fact, we’ve been working away, adding new content, adding new (mostly backend) functionality, trying new marketing work, and more. But first, we’ve hit a big milestone — yesterday, we loaded our ONE THOUSANDTH resource! I’ll admit, I’m pretty astounded at that. Here’s a list of what we’ve added since the last blog post:
So, we’ve been working hard at adding new content. Getting to ONE THOUSAND resources is HUGE, in my book! We’ve got more to go, I assure you.
On the technology side, we have converted most of our subscription processing from PayPal to Stripe. We think that’s better for us, and better for our customers. If you have an opinion otherwise, I’d be glad to hear it; for now, we think it will make things easier for users. We have some more work coming soon, this time on the login process.
As always, if you have suggestions for content to add to the database, or questions about how it works, please contact me at comments (at) shipindex (dot) org, and share your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas. Until then, fair winds!
In the past I haven’t kept a running tally of content that has been removed from the database, but I have mentioned it. The database takes a huge hit when I have to remove 380,000 citations in one go! As mentioned in the prior post, we’ve looked over all online resources, just to make sure they’re working. Many are not. I am going to make a note of the ones that I’m deleting from the database on the table below; I’ll be updating this over the next month or two as a work through all of the problematic online resources.
RESOURCE NAME
NOTES ABOUT THE RESOURCE
National Small Boat Register
As noted here, the database has been taken offline for an unknown period. Let’s just hope it does, eventually, return.
Blue World Web Museum
Google still shows the underlying data, but it’s not available. This collection had great links to images of ships from artwork.
Containership-info.com
Just not there anymore…
NOAA History: NOAA Coast and Geodetic Ships
I could not find any of the NOAA history pages anymore. A few pages may exist on the NOAA pages, but they’re not organized in the same way as in the past.
Union List of Historic Vessels in North America
This one threw me for a loop,
I’ll keep adding to this list as I work through our data.
