What's a transcribathon? In the words of Paul Dingman of the Folger Shakespeare Library, on the very first transcribathon in 2014: “Transcribathon, an event running from noon to midnight in which we transcribe and encode manuscripts..." Your transcribathon doesn't have be a 12 hour long marathon, but we've gathered a list of ideas from other transcribathons that … [Read more...] about 10 Ways to Host a Great Transcribathon
how-to
2018 Paleography Courses
Last spring, we shared a list of online and face-to-face paleography courses. Now we're back with some shiny new possibilities for 2018! Here's what we've found. Some are MOOCS (massive open online courses) offered through universities; others are web-based self-paced tutorials. If none of these work for you, you should also check out the classic instructional guides … [Read more...] about 2018 Paleography Courses
Crowdsourcing with CONTENTdm and FromThePage
We are pleased to announce that FromThePage now integrates with CONTENTdm, the digital collections management system created by OCLC. Through this integration, CONTENTdm users can launch crowdsourcing projects on FromThePage without the need for uploading image files, copying metadata, or cut-and-pasting user contributions into their digital collections. How it … [Read more...] about Crowdsourcing with CONTENTdm and FromThePage
Writing a Crowdsourcing Project Newsletter
Why should you write a newsletter for your crowdsourcing project? The biggest reason to send a newsletter for your crowdsourcing project is to keep your volunteers motivated and coming back. We live in a busy world, and a gentle reminder that your project exists and is fun to work on can reengage volunteers. There's lots of ways to write a project newsletter, but I've noticed … [Read more...] about Writing a Crowdsourcing Project Newsletter
Hashtags for Community Building
As we touched on in our earlier post about the Smithsonian Transcription Center and their successful team of volunteer transcribers, the hashtag #volunpeers was first used by the Center's project coordinator Dr. Meghan Ferriter. In the four years since Ferriter coined the term, in April 2014, it has taken off as a popular hashtag across a wide variety of host repositories, … [Read more...] about Hashtags for Community Building