When using online library databases at a local library or Family History Center, various images and text files appear that the researcher will want to save for documentation purposes. The first choice is simply to use a personal computer or tablet on the library Wi-Fi and save files normally. However, sometimes that is not possible (desktop as a personal computer come to mind), or because licensing requires that the online database can ONLY be accessed using a library computer. This post outlines how to download files and screen images onto a USB Flash Drive for later use. The post assumes the library has a Windows computer. While schools often use Macintosh computers, libraries almost never use anything except Windows computers. The post uses FamilySearch as an example. In most regards, other online services found at a library will be similar.
USB Terminology
First; a little USB terminology. A USB Flash Drive plugs into a USB port. There are three types that are commonly used; USB 1, USB 2, and USB 3. All three are functionally interchangeable, but differ in speed and in other esoteric details. Some new computers use USB C, but I've never seen a library with USB C, so I won't discuss those in this post. Simply put, USB 2 is faster than USB 1 and USB 3 is faster than USB 2. Luckily for the user of a library computer, any USB Flash drive will work with any of these ports. Because of this, it is best to get USB 3 for a Flash Drive because that'll go as fast as the library (or home) computer lets it. Realistically, however, even USB 1 is fast enough to download most genealogy images. Genealogy files are not usually high resolution video.
The photo below shows typical USB ports on the side of a laptop computer. In the photo, there are 2 USB 3 ports and a USB 2 port in the photographed computer. USB 3 have blue in the port, while USB 2 has black or dark gray. If there were a USB 1 port, it'd be white. Computer manufacturers are generally pretty good about making their ports the color users would expect. There are also orange ports that supply power, but that is of no concern for purposes of using a USB drive to store downloaded files.
Sometimes library computers will have USB ports up front, sometimes on the side, and sometimes they will have them on an extension cord on the table that runs out from ports at the back of the computer. The variations are myriad. The computers in the Ocean Shores Family History Center have their USB ports on the side of the monitor, but wherever the ports are is where the USB Flash Drive plugs in.
Colors on Flash Drives are normally the same as on the computers. However, as the photo below shows, the buyer must beware - the drive on the far right is actually a USB 2 drive that falsely appropriated the blue color of a USB 3. Luckily, it was purchased as USB 2, so the blue color was mainly a curiosity. For some reason, manufacturers of USB devices are more careless about plug color than are the computer manufacturers. A new USB drive should come IN A PACKAGE that says what type it is. Don't overpay for a slower drive. Even USB 3 drives are inexpensive nowadays. A 256 Gb USB 3 drive last summer cost $20 on sale. A 256 GB drive will store around 300,000 typical downloaded images, so such a drive should suffice to store the results of many online sessions, and even quite a number of downloaded eBooks.
Downloads Folder and File Explorer
Before plugging the drive in, it's a good idea to open the "Downloads Folder" on the library computer by double clicking on it or by opening File Explorer and selecting it. If there are any files in it, deleting them will make sure the researcher starts with an empty Downloads Folder that will only contain his/her files. Once you the drive is plugged into the operating computer, a window will normally pop up to ask what action is desired. If that doesn't happen, the USB drive can be opened with Windows File Explorer. In any event, if the Downloads Folder wasn't opened earlier, it is helpful to have it open before downloading files. If File Explorer doesn't pop up, click the RH button on the mouse ("Right Click") file folder in the task bar as in the graphic at right.
At this point, files can be downloaded efficiently, such as the photo at left. To download the file, simply Right Click in the image area. A dialog will appear such as that in the photo. Then the "Save image as..." should be selected. This is done by dragging the mouse over the "Save.." and then left clicking. A dialog box like that below will appear. Notable features in the "Save As" dialog have been highlighted in the image.
The destination folder can be changed and even downloaded directly to your USB drive, but it is simplest just to download everything into the computer Downloads folder and then move them onto the USB drive when the work is done. The file can be called any name, which may be diffferent than the web site used for its purposes. The wise researcher picks descriptive names that suit the filing system where the files will wind up being archived.
Downloading Image File from FamilySearch
The following images illustrate the process of downloading a file from FamilySearch into the downloads folder and then, later moving it from there to the USB Drive. In the example, a FamilySearch image will be downloaded. The image is shown below. In FamilySearch, a window pops up and the document can be viewed by either clicking on the image or by clicking on the "View the original document" link. Ancestry and most other genealogy sites work in a similar fashion.
Next, the "Download button" is clicked. In the case of Ancestry, one would pick "save." FamilySearch will either immediately download the image into the Downloads folder with a name of "record-image" or it will occasionally switch to a new window where it can be "save as" and a custom name assigned immediately. It appears that FamilySearch is going to switch everything over to the second approach, but they have not made any announcements as of when this post was made.
Anyway, there is no benefit to having 20 files as "record image", "record image(1)," and so on, so take advantage of the open Downloads folder to immediately rename it to something related to the content of the image.
Anyway, all this stuff will gradually fill the Downloads Folder. When finished with image and file collection, the Downloads and USB may look somewhat like the image below. As may be seen, there are four files in the Downloads folder. These will be moved into the "Library Downloads" folder. Having a dedicated folder on the USB helps keep the files together until they have been finally named and placed where they belong. For simplicity name the Library Downloads File something like "Library Downloads on today's date and month in 2020." Different people will want to use a different naming convention - what is important is to name things so that the content is not a mystery when the files and folders are later moved into their final archives.
At this point, all the files in the Downloads File can be picked at once. This is accomplished by drawing a box around them with the mouse or by hitting "Ctrl and A" keys at the same time when the Downloads Folder window is active. Alternately, files can be dragged from one place to another one at a time. Once all the files in the Downloads folder have been picked, things may now look like the image below.
The easiest way to move the files into the destination is to click the selected files while holding down the shift key. Then drag them into the destination folder while continuing to hold down the shift key. That moves them rather than copying them and the result afterwards will look like the image below.
Another way is to simply drag the files, which copies them into the destination folder. After the files have all copied, delete the files in the download folder. Using this approach, it's recommended to look in the destination folder and verify that copies of the files are really there before emptying the recycle bin.
Saving FamilySearch Text Information
Sometimes, text is all that is available (no image file). In such cases, you can either hit the print button or Right Click the page and then pick "Print." Instead of using the library printer, it's also possible to select "Print to pdf" and save the item of interest into the Downloads Folder along with the various downloaded image files. At the end of the session, the pdf printouts go into the destination drive along with all the image files. Often, it is desirable to print the text interpretation of an image. In such cases, naming both files so the connection is apparent avoids future confusion. FamilySearch also has other choices, such as "Copy to Clipboard," which saves all the usful text on to the clipboard, from which it can be pasted into a Word or text document. Email will send the text to an input email address.
USB Terminology
First; a little USB terminology. A USB Flash Drive plugs into a USB port. There are three types that are commonly used; USB 1, USB 2, and USB 3. All three are functionally interchangeable, but differ in speed and in other esoteric details. Some new computers use USB C, but I've never seen a library with USB C, so I won't discuss those in this post. Simply put, USB 2 is faster than USB 1 and USB 3 is faster than USB 2. Luckily for the user of a library computer, any USB Flash drive will work with any of these ports. Because of this, it is best to get USB 3 for a Flash Drive because that'll go as fast as the library (or home) computer lets it. Realistically, however, even USB 1 is fast enough to download most genealogy images. Genealogy files are not usually high resolution video.
The photo below shows typical USB ports on the side of a laptop computer. In the photo, there are 2 USB 3 ports and a USB 2 port in the photographed computer. USB 3 have blue in the port, while USB 2 has black or dark gray. If there were a USB 1 port, it'd be white. Computer manufacturers are generally pretty good about making their ports the color users would expect. There are also orange ports that supply power, but that is of no concern for purposes of using a USB drive to store downloaded files.
Colors on Flash Drives are normally the same as on the computers. However, as the photo below shows, the buyer must beware - the drive on the far right is actually a USB 2 drive that falsely appropriated the blue color of a USB 3. Luckily, it was purchased as USB 2, so the blue color was mainly a curiosity. For some reason, manufacturers of USB devices are more careless about plug color than are the computer manufacturers. A new USB drive should come IN A PACKAGE that says what type it is. Don't overpay for a slower drive. Even USB 3 drives are inexpensive nowadays. A 256 Gb USB 3 drive last summer cost $20 on sale. A 256 GB drive will store around 300,000 typical downloaded images, so such a drive should suffice to store the results of many online sessions, and even quite a number of downloaded eBooks.
Before plugging the drive in, it's a good idea to open the "Downloads Folder" on the library computer by double clicking on it or by opening File Explorer and selecting it. If there are any files in it, deleting them will make sure the researcher starts with an empty Downloads Folder that will only contain his/her files. Once you the drive is plugged into the operating computer, a window will normally pop up to ask what action is desired. If that doesn't happen, the USB drive can be opened with Windows File Explorer. In any event, if the Downloads Folder wasn't opened earlier, it is helpful to have it open before downloading files. If File Explorer doesn't pop up, click the RH button on the mouse ("Right Click") file folder in the task bar as in the graphic at right.
At this point, files can be downloaded efficiently, such as the photo at left. To download the file, simply Right Click in the image area. A dialog will appear such as that in the photo. Then the "Save image as..." should be selected. This is done by dragging the mouse over the "Save.." and then left clicking. A dialog box like that below will appear. Notable features in the "Save As" dialog have been highlighted in the image.
Downloading Image File from FamilySearch
The following images illustrate the process of downloading a file from FamilySearch into the downloads folder and then, later moving it from there to the USB Drive. In the example, a FamilySearch image will be downloaded. The image is shown below. In FamilySearch, a window pops up and the document can be viewed by either clicking on the image or by clicking on the "View the original document" link. Ancestry and most other genealogy sites work in a similar fashion.
Anyway, all this stuff will gradually fill the Downloads Folder. When finished with image and file collection, the Downloads and USB may look somewhat like the image below. As may be seen, there are four files in the Downloads folder. These will be moved into the "Library Downloads" folder. Having a dedicated folder on the USB helps keep the files together until they have been finally named and placed where they belong. For simplicity name the Library Downloads File something like "Library Downloads on today's date and month in 2020." Different people will want to use a different naming convention - what is important is to name things so that the content is not a mystery when the files and folders are later moved into their final archives.
The easiest way to move the files into the destination is to click the selected files while holding down the shift key. Then drag them into the destination folder while continuing to hold down the shift key. That moves them rather than copying them and the result afterwards will look like the image below.
Saving FamilySearch Text Information
Sometimes, text is all that is available (no image file). In such cases, you can either hit the print button or Right Click the page and then pick "Print." Instead of using the library printer, it's also possible to select "Print to pdf" and save the item of interest into the Downloads Folder along with the various downloaded image files. At the end of the session, the pdf printouts go into the destination drive along with all the image files. Often, it is desirable to print the text interpretation of an image. In such cases, naming both files so the connection is apparent avoids future confusion. FamilySearch also has other choices, such as "Copy to Clipboard," which saves all the usful text on to the clipboard, from which it can be pasted into a Word or text document. Email will send the text to an input email address.
