Anticipating the Next Generation PERSI

FindMyPast has recently announced their partnership with the Allen County Public Library to revolutionize the PERiodical Source Index (PERSI) – a database well known to many genealogists. PERSI is a fabulous resource in that the ACPL has, over the past 30 years, been indexing publications from genealogy society newsletters and journals.
However, as great as PERSI is, two years ago I blogged suggestions for further improving it and in general, thoughts for how the genealogy publishing industry could become more aligned with models used in science and medicine for online publishing. I am so glad to see this new partnership and believe it will be a great impetus for a start in this direction!

In my blog post, I listed several features I would love to see included in PERSI – perhaps FindMyPast can incorporate some of these elements — these included RSS feeds for each title, the ability to comment at the individual article level, the ability to share publication details via social media, and offering HTML and PDF versions of articles. Ideally, I would also like to see ways to purchase access to articles (with some older ones being provided for free).
I can anticipate that many genealogy societies may have reservations about how their content will be reflected and included in the new version of PERSI, since there are plans to include full-text content, but I would also hope that many will see this as an opportunity to be open-minded and reflect on the potential for new business models.
As it stands now, I as a user, remain highly frustrated by the publishing models of many genealogy societies and hope that this may open a path for widespread consideration. Far too few offer easy-access methods for true online subscriptions to current, much less, historical content. Do you know how inconvenient it is for me to have to send a check for print volumes, or even wait for a CD to be sent? Digital delivery is greatly needed by more genealogy societies. 
The Federation of Genealogical Societies would be an ideal organization to help with some of the transition so the fact that D. Joshua Taylor is FGS President and lead genealogist for FindMyPast is almost too perfect! 🙂
As Curt Witcher is quoted in the FindMyPast press release

Having the ability to provide much more frequent updates and further, link index entries to serial issues, is a real game-changer…

and I eagerly anticipate seeing this come to fruition for us all to benefit even more than we have in the past!