Michael Lapides of the New Bedford Whaling Museum kindly took the time to answer questions and discuss their project and experience using the platform with Sara Brumfield of FromThePage. Michael Lapides is the Director of Digital Engagement at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. First, tell us about your documents. The New Bedford Whaling Museum's archival collections … [Read more...] about An Interview with Michael Lapides of the New Bedford Whaling Museum
Uncategorized
Archives as an Antidote for ChatGPT
I wanted to write this month about ChatGPT, and how archives are about as anti-ChatGPT as you can get. Archives can provide learning experiences that ChatGPT can’t fake. First, a simplification that’s useful in thinking about what ChatGPT (and its ilk) can – and can’t – do. ChatGPT is, in technical terms, a “large language model”. That means that the creators fed it massive … [Read more...] about Archives as an Antidote for ChatGPT
Trust in the Truth
Happy February. I thought I’d write about how transcription in the classroom could counter the challenges ChapGPT introduces, but then I ran across this quote from James Baldwin and decided to ruminate on transcribing the difficult parts of history: People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. Perhaps you're faced with the stark history of injustice -- … [Read more...] about Trust in the Truth
Using Crowdsourced Indexes in Preservica
What can you do with transcripts once your project is done? The Texas Digital Archive transcribed the handwritten index to a 3rd court of appeals and turned it into a look up table by Appellant and Appellee, making their digitized case records much more accessible. The Texas Commission on Libraries and Archives transcribed a handwritten index to their Court of … [Read more...] about Using Crowdsourced Indexes in Preservica
How Do Holidays Affect Crowdsourcing?
How do holidays affect crowdsourcing in cultural heritage? Many people are away from work, spending time with family and friends, but is that true of the retirees that make up the bulk of our volunteers? We thought about this last month, just after Thanksgiving in the USA. A regional holiday seemed like a good opportunity to look for patterns. Over the previous … [Read more...] about How Do Holidays Affect Crowdsourcing?