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Transcribe NLS: Crowdsourcing at the National Library of Scotland
- 1. Transcribe NLS Crowdsourcing at the National Library of Scotland Scotland's National Collections and the Digital Humanities Workshop 3: Research and/as Engagement 12 September 2014 Ines Byrne, Digital Collections Specialist, National Library of Scotland i.byrne@nls.uk
- 2. Transcribe NLS Question: What is crowdsourcing? Answer: More than just free labour! Actively engaging the public in our collection development Work we could never resource ourselves
- 3. Transcribe NLS Plans at NLS: manuscript transcriptions - Transcribe NLS printed text (OCR) corrections indexing/tagging
- 4. crowdsourcing transcriptions around the world National Archives USA http://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/transcribe/ University of Iowa http://diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu/ National Archives of Australia http://transcribe.naa.gov.au/ The Smithsonian https://transcription.si.edu/ Transcribe Bentham http://www.transcribe-bentham.da.ulcc.ac.uk ScotlandsPlaces http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/transcribe
- 5. What can we learn from them? crowd activity level only 21% of registered transcribers produce transcriptions 70% of transcriptions come from 3% of active transcribers on average, one transcriber contributes 2 working hours per week on average, one transcriber works on 6 pages per hour
- 6. What can we learn from them? what the transcriber wants guidelines on how to use the tool be able to flag up issues with more experienced transcribers personal activity logs to keep track of their activity and history
- 7. What can we learn from them? What is off-putting? extensive and complicated instructions hard-to-read handwriting technical issues with the tool complexity of mark-up encoding
- 8. What can we learn from them? how to keep the crowd motivated • feeling trusted and respected • recognition – “show us how we fit into the big picture” • the outcome – “tell us what your aim is – we want to help achieve it” • clear instructions – “we will work better if we know what you want from us” • ability to communicate with other transcribers • constantly adding more material to be transcribed – “keep us busy”
- 9. What can we learn from them? lessons learned • reply to enquiries promptly or else you lose your transcribers • the public have more spare time than you can imagine • moderation raises quality but is time-consuming (Bentham’s 2 moderators could have produced 2.5 times more transcriptions than the crowd did) • one system doesn’t fit all content adapt your tool to fit your material • majority of transcribers are not very experienced • invest in training videos • go live quietly to be able to deal with all the issues arising • no transcriber felt being exploited
- 10. What is it that we want to build? Easy to use no complex mark-up encoding No resources for moderation self-moderation (loss of quality control) High-level control registration required
- 12. Transcribe NLS Materials for transcription: Marjory Fleming diary mountaineering diaries and notebooks recipe books genealogy materials
- 15. It will be great! Well, let’s define “great”…
- 16. Thank you Ines Byrne National Library of Scotland i.byrne@nls.uk
Editor's Notes
- How do we incorporate feedback: personal activity log registration allows for “my archive” flag up issues with other transcribers forum guidelines will have link to “how to use the toll” guide training videos will have link to video with voice-over off-putting: complex instructions guidelines are short and free from “jargon” off-putting: technical issues “contact us” reply to enquiries “contact us” feeling trusted self-correcting within the crowd “How do I fit into the bigger picture” say what our aim is
- How do we incorporate feedback: constantly add more materials drop-feeding transcribers may not be experienced select easy materials (no complex structure, no messy layout, easy-to-read hand)
- How do we incorporate feedback: many are not very experienced intuitive tool link to “how to use the tool” guidelines documents are easily legible off-putting: complexity of mark-up plain text editor (no TEI) special mark-up via blue buttons (e.g. strike-through, illegible, marginal text) ability to communicate with others link to forum Other features: image and transcription box viewable side by side or below each other includes version history transcriptions are visible to everyone, editable after log-in saving as “finished” or “in progress” you can come back any time saved transcriptions are immediately available via online search engines and soon after in our Digital Gallery
- Integrated into existing NLS systems many project build from scratch (e.g. via open source MediaWiki) NLS built in-house to allow for system integration Downsides bound to existing look & feel old-fashioned boring bound to existing functionality and layout not extremely intuitive (e.g. facets on left) navigation to next page in tool display of metadata (how we can query the database) bound to existing terminology mainly in tool duplication of materials in Digital Gallery delay in transcriptions being visible in Digital Gallery discrepancy between tool and Gallery Still great? Yes Huge potential to move accessibility to our collections forward Huge potential to engage the public in our collections and collection-building