I recently saw a presentation by Dick Kasperowski and Olof Karsvall about research they’d done on The Detective Section, a crowdsourcing project at the Swedish National Archives. Their findings contradicted some of the conventional wisdom that volunteers introduce bias into results when they bring their own subject-matter expertise to citizen science tasks, and that made me … [Read more...] about Connection Makes Quality
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How LLMs Work & A Handwritten Text Recognition Sandbox
I’ve got two useful AI tidbits for you this month: The first is the best explanation of how large language models work. This is a pretty opaque topic that few attempt to understand, but I think it’s important to grasp – even in metaphor – how systems like ChatGPT work. When you understand how they work, your intuition for the types of problems they can – or can’t – … [Read more...] about How LLMs Work & A Handwritten Text Recognition Sandbox
AI-Assist in FromThePage: Using HTR in People-Centered Transcription
Last month, Ben and Sara Brumfield hosted a webinar to introduce the new AI-assist feature: Handwritten Text Recognition. The presentation, linked below in a video and embedded as slides, presents a walkthrough of the new HTR feature. This was one of FromThePage's most-attended webinars, and it was exciting to have so many people join. You can sign up for future … [Read more...] about AI-Assist in FromThePage: Using HTR in People-Centered Transcription
Guiding Transcribers: Addressing Racist Material in Crowdsourced Archival Projects
In honor of Black History Month, we asked some of the institutions who run projects uncovering the names and histories of African Americans on FromThePage the following question, "What do you tell volunteers who encounter offensive or racist material in your projects?" Sonya Coleman at Library of Virginia summed it up with a meme: From … [Read more...] about Guiding Transcribers: Addressing Racist Material in Crowdsourced Archival Projects
An Interview with Dr. Aaron Taylor of Native Bound Unbound
Dr. Aaron Taylor of Native Bound Unbound kindly took the time to answer questions and discuss their projects and experience using the platform with Sara Brumfield of FromThePage. Aaron Taylor is the deputy director of Native Bound Unbound. First, tell us about your documents. Native Bound Unbound is gathering a wide variety of documents, all connected by the common … [Read more...] about An Interview with Dr. Aaron Taylor of Native Bound Unbound