Thursday, October 4, 2018

Why this blog?

The purpose of this blog is to assist researchers with the transcription of documents in an era when cursive writing is being abandoned and there are few places on the internet where anyone interested in reading the cursive writing of the past can obtain assistance.

In the process of attempting to revive a set of programs I developed for transcribing documents (the defunct ecpclio.net), I have come to the conclusion that volunteer indexers and transcribers, including myself should work through the shared world of Google Mail/Google Drive.  The key is to make it as simple as possible to achieve the desired goal.

It would be best, of course, if the institutions holding the documents to be transcribed/index would host the process, and benefit directly from any transcription./indexing, but that seems less and less likely in a world in which institutions become so protective of their holdings that sharing through the internet is denied, even with collections that once were available in that context.

In any event, as I become involved in transcription and editing projects relating to research I have been and will be conducting, I will explain the projects on this site and offer a means for individuals who would like to participate a home for their transcriptions/indexing.

For those who have already participated in transcription/indexing projects on ecpclio.net, I will be reviving them and posting them here.  This includes all the excellent work done by my students and those at Stevenson University on Baltimore in the War of 1812 and the Civil War that was lost when ecpclio.net was shut down by the  host institution.

Do feel free to contact me at transcribedoc@gmail.com with any questions or suggestions you might have.


Ecpclio




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