1. Transcribathons as citizen science projects
A comparative analysis of European initiatives
Mariana Ziku, Katerina Zourou, Web2Learn, Greece
Participatory Transcription Projects in Museums, Archives, Libraries –
A Practical Exchange of Experience, 28 and 29 October 2021

2. An initiative of the EU-funded project CitizenHeritage
“Citizen Science Practices in Cultural Heritage:
towards a Sustainable Model in Higher Education”
An Erasmus+ project (2020-2023)
https://www.citizenheritage.eu/

3. Here is where your presentation begins
In a nutshell
Public participation
and collaboration in
scientific research
Citizen Science
Sustainable HEIs and
knowledge creation
with civil society
Higher Education
Open access policy,
open data and
metadata, FAIR data
Open Data
Cultural commons and
digital transformation
Cultural Heritage

4. Here is where your presentation begins
METHODOLOGY

5. Scope of today’s talk
Insights into participatory
transcription initiatives among
the wealth of citizen science
projects in cultural heritage
sector
● Citizen data re-use
and appropriation,
ethics and ownership
● Volunteer contributors
in citizen science
projects

6. Citizen enhanced
open science 9-factor stack
Open access
Open data
Open metadata
Open metrics
Open-source
Open access
Open file formats
Open documentation
Open datasets
Methodology

7. 15 transcription projects
in the cultural heritage sector
European-based initiatives
Derived from the
study

8. Alone in a crowd;
transcribing together
3
CULTURAL HERITAGE
TRANSCRIPTION
PROJECTS
Transcribe Bentham
Meitheal Dúchas.ie
1
2
UCL Libraries
UCD Digital Library, National
Folklore Collection
Cambridge Digital Library

9. In the Spotlight 6
CULTURAL HERITAGE
TRANSCRIPTION
PROJECTS
World Architecture Unlocked
Living with Machines
4
5
Conway Library | The Courtauld
British Library
British Library

10. Hanse.Quellen.Lesen! 9
CULTURAL HERITAGE
TRANSCRIPTION
PROJECTS
Comunidad BNE
Transcribathon
7
8
National Library of Spain
Europeana
FGHO

11. Every Name Counts 12
CULTURAL HERITAGE
TRANSCRIPTION
PROJECTS
Danish West Indies
MicroPasts
10
11
Arolsen Archives
UCL, The British Museum
Danish National Archives

12. Letters 1916-1923 15
CULTURAL HERITAGE
TRANSCRIPTION
PROJECTS
Witnesses
Digitally Unlocking
Nature’s Archive
13
14
Maynooth University
Natural History Museum
Vrije Universiteit Brussel

13. NAME OF THE
SECTION
You could enter a subtitle here if you need it
02
OPENNESS SCOPE
9-FACTOR STACK

14. OPENNESS SCOPE 9-FACTOR STACK
TRANSCRIBATHONS (SUM) INFOGRAPHIC
Open metrics
Open-source soft/hardware
Open access results
General policy of content, active/archived
Some/all eligible data
Data Exchange Agreement (Europeana CCo)
Number of references, edits, views
Free/libre and open source software (FLOSS)
Machine actionable data for research
Open data
Open access
Open metadata
Open file formats Suitable for long term preservation
Open documentation Datasheets for Datasets
Open datasets Through e.g. a data dump, repository, API
good
poor
Partly good

15. OPENNESS SCOPE 9-FACTOR STACK
TRANSCRIBATHONS DATA VISUALISATION good
poor partly good
limited

16. OPENNESS SCOPE 9-FACTOR STACK
TRANSCRIBATHONS DATA VISUALISATION good
poor partly good
limited

17. OPENNESS SCOPE 9-FACTOR STACK
TRANSCRIBATHONS (SUM) DATA VISUALISATION good
poor partly good
limited

18. OPENNESS SCOPE 9-FACTOR STACK
TRANSCRIBATHONS (SUM) DATA VISUALISATION good
poor partly good
limited

19. OPENNESS SCOPE 9-FACTOR STACK
TRANSCRIBATHONS (SUM) DATA VISUALISATION
good
poor
partly good
limited
Data visualisation sum view of transcription projects measured against the 9-factor openness stack

20. EXTENDED OPENNESS
CHECKLIST
*
*
CITIZEN SCIENCE DATA AND
METADATA STANDARDS
OPEN-ACCESS AND OPEN DATA
POLICY DECLARATION

21. EXTENDED OPENNESS
CHECKLIST
*
*
*
DATA QUALITY
ASSURANCE *
FAIR AND CARE PRINCIPLES
OPEN-ACCESS AND OPEN DATA
POLICY DECLARATION
CITIZEN SCIENCE DATA AND
METADATA STANDARDS

22. NEXT STEPS
Release of the full
study in October 2021
(open access)
Organisation of citizen
science projects by project
partners in 2022-2023
https://www.citizenheritage.eu/

23. THANK YOU!
https://www.citizenheritage.eu/results
https://web2learn.eu
@web2learn_eu