Does your school or organization require volunteer hours? Did you know By the People may be able to help you fulfill those hours online? Our team has recently rolled out some new features to help volunteers track and document their time - which may help if you need to document hours.
As of January 1 2024, Community Managers can no longer sign off on organization-specific forms, including automated ones, or writing customized letters verifying volunteer hours. Our site doesn't track the time volunteers spend transcribing or reviewing, but we've created some tools to help you document your contributions and track your own hours.
The first thing you should do is sign up for a user account and log in each time you volunteer. Your profile has a record of the pages you worked on and how many transcriptions and reviews you have completed. The profile page also houses our new documentation tools.
On the first tab of your profile page ("My Contributions"), you can download a letter on Library of Congress letterhead that includes your total number of contributions as well as a list of every page you've worked on in the past six months. These page logs include date and time stamps that can be helpful in reconstructing and documenting the number of hours you've spent volunteering. Opt to include your first and last name in the letter, instead of your username, by entering your information into the "Account Settings" tab on the profile.
Underneath the service letter download button, you'll also find a spreadsheet template that you can use to input and track your hours. The spreadsheet has a simple addition formula built in to help you add up your hours.
Although By the People Community Managers cannot sign off on organization-specific forms, including automated ones or create customized letters, we hope these verification tools will make it easier for you to track you own hours.