Meredith McDonough of the Alabama Department of Archives and History kindly took the time to answer questions from Sara Brumfield of FromThePage, and discussed their project and experience using the platform.
Meredith McDonough is the Archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Meredith McDonough at ADAH is one of our most experienced crowdsourcerers and has a ton of advice for folks running crowdsourcing projects. You should definitely read this interview!
First, tell us about your documents.
We recently launched a project to transcribe entries from 61 volumes of voter registration oaths taken by white and Black men in Alabama, mostly in 1875. Each entry records the voter's name, race, and occupation, details which will be invaluable to genealogists and scholars alike. But the significance of this information extends beyond traditional research. Because these volumes (along with our 1867 voter registration books) are among the state's earliest government records documenting the names of formerly enslaved African American men, this content can help citizens better understand Alabama's complex political and social climate during Reconstruction. (For more information about the collection and the context in which the oaths were administered, see the Alabama History DIY website.)
In addition to the 1875 voter registration books, we are also using FromThePage to host two remote student internships. One of these centers on the Alabama Supreme Court case files, 1820 to 1877, which are an incredible resource for studying the state’s early development, slavery, wartime, emancipation, and Reconstruction. Given the size of this collection (the 1,100 cases scanned to date represent less than a tenth of the total), we are prioritizing those cases in which African Americans, women, and other under-represented groups are parties or prominent subjects. By confronting the dual challenges of nineteenth century handwriting and legal terminology, this transcription project provides both an excellent learning opportunity for the student, and increased access to records that might otherwise seem too difficult to use.
Our other internship focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Alabama, a collaborative effort between ADAH and the University of Alabama. The collection includes thousands of documents uploaded at the folder level, and ADAH staff has begun the long process of writing individual descriptions for each. By using two new features in FromThePage, we can distribute and manage the work of item-level description on a single platform. The new metadata interface allows one student to move seamlessly from transcription to description, filling in the requested information while the details are fresh on her mind. Then other students, who have been assigned the new reviewer role, check and approve transcriptions so that project staff can focus on administrative tasks and content management.
While the Supreme Court files and governors’ papers are not yet open to other volunteers, both are large-scale, long-term endeavors. Starting with a small set of student collaborators gives us a chance to test workflows and procedures before inviting other volunteers to participate. After completing two other substantial projects in FromThePage (World War I service records and active military service reports), and we’ve learned that the more complex the work, the more prepared we need to be!
What are your goals for the projects?
All the materials in our projects are already available in the ADAH Digital Collections, where they can at least be discovered and browsed without making a special trip to Montgomery. For the bulk of our digital content, this level of access is adequate—just like we’ll never scan all of ADAH’s physical records, we’ll never transcribe all of our digitized records. Instead, we focus those efforts on collections that would most benefit from extensive transcription. For example, it’s great to have the 1875 voter registration volumes online and in color, but it’s very difficult to find specific people or gather statistics by reviewing the books page by page. The enhanced access made possible by our FromThePage volunteers both facilitates and encourages exploration of these rich but complicated sources of information.
While improved access is an obvious goal of a transcription project, we also appreciate the opportunity to connect with (and expand) our community of users and supporters. Our very first project was designed to coincide with the centennial of World War I and the bicentennial of our state, helping us raise awareness of these anniversaries and promote participation in commemorative activities. And during the early days of the pandemic, when a year’s worth of exhibits and programming was temporarily put on ice, we posted collections of women’s manuscripts—a fitting tribute to the centennial of the 19th Amendment and also a welcome distraction for an anxious and isolated public. We could do nothing without the generosity of our virtual volunteers, so we want them to feel like their work is meaningful and fulfilling.
How are you recruiting or finding volunteers/collaborators?
ADAH has a robust in-person volunteer program, so we usually start things at home, and we’ve found that soft local launches give us a chance to work out kinks before opening up projects to the public. It’s helpful to talk with our regular folks about the collections and instructions because they will let us know if something doesn’t make sense or work as expected.
Our official public launches begin with social media posts (especially Facebook and Twitter) and email announcements to our standard mailing lists. We also describe and promote the projects on Alabama History DIY and in publications, such as Present & Past (our departmental newsletter) and Alabama Heritage.
Social media has proven to be our most effective tool for soliciting participation, but not in quite the way we expected. While many of our volunteers are among ADAH’s dedicated followers, we have been stunned by the number who learn about our projects through virtual word-of-mouth: Tweets, Retweets, shares, and likes. We tend to keep our large projects private and then add collaborators as they express interest (just so we can establish a direct line of communication), and these exchanges often begin with “I just saw a post about your project on . . .” or “I’m not from Alabama, but . . .” Hearing from people around the country—and beyond, sometimes—is both gratifying and heartwarming, confirming the value of our records and establishing a sense of community that transcends state lines.
Can you share your experience using FromThePage?
Our experience with FromThePage actually began with a question. We had a project in mind—again, the World War I service cards—but we needed field-based data entry rather than full-text transcription because each card was a form. When we approached y’all to ask about this capability, you confirmed that it wasn’t available . . . yet. Rather than turn us away, you started a conversation, which led to a collaboration between ADAH and other members of the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) to fund several software developments on the platform, including field-based transcription.
We hosted several successful projects after that and were always thinking about other collections that might be good candidates. Among those were numerous registers and ledgers, books with multiple fields per entry and multiple entries per page. Once again, the available transcription options on FromThePage didn’t quite fit this format, so the CoSA team reassembled (and expanded) and presented y’all with a new wish list that is now almost complete. Among the newest features is the ledger-style spreadsheet, without which our current project would not be possible.
This software development has been a boon to us, of course, but it also benefits all other users of FromThePage, who now have access to these features. It’s amazing to see the creative ways different institutions have employed them!
How does FromThePage and crowdsourcing fit with special collections and archives?
My answer to this echoes the goals I mentioned above. There’s access, of course, which is the ultimate aim of collecting these materials in the first place. Whether it’s interpreting handwriting or collecting data in searchable and sortable fields, the output of these transcription and metadata projects help our users more easily find and understand the records in our collections.
But these projects are also a potential method of outreach and advocacy. We individually benefit from the work done by our volunteers, but the entire historical community benefits from an increased public awareness of and appreciation for what we do. Crowdsourcing invites citizens to join in that work, giving them a sense of responsibility for the past we all share; a direct, personal connection to the people who made it; and a desire to support and protect the institutions that preserve it.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?
Just that we really appreciate all you do. FromThePage is lovely and intuitive (I don’t even want to think about the clunky piecemeal solution I was planning before we found FTP), and y’all are a delight to work with—responsive, patient, and always up for a challenge. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!
Have a project that could benefit from collaborative transcription? Schedule a consultation with Ben and Sara.