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Technical
problems in the Czech genealogy
The Czech genealogy field
suffers for longer time from many technical problems which make prime obstacles
to public and professional researchers:
a) Bad quality of microfilms is the final product of the state
effort to limit accessibility of original registers to researchers. It
is a good idea to protect the national heritage, but researchers should
be provided with appropriate readable copies (= microfilms) which could
enable them to proceed their work without any considerable obstacles.
b) Lack of study room projectors used for microfilms. Their number
is limited. In addition, most of the projectors are in bad conditions
or out of service.
c) Insufficient number of places in study rooms requires to book
a seat, even a few weeks or months in advance.
d) Inadequate knowledge or willingness of archive staff is the
symbol of attitude in the Czech Archives. The same is valid for state
clerks, especially at town halls, where newer vital registers are housed,
and at cadastral offices. The problem is that laws are explained in many
ways. That helps to clerks in making incomprehensible obstacles, usually
regarding the access to registers (for data protection), refuse applications
for copies of sought documents. Therefore, researchers do not have a large
space to do their work as best as they could do.
These problems are contraproductive for the society as the interest in private
history and self-education is increasing for the last 13 years.
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