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Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC) Oct 22, 2018 7:07 PM

Hello! Thank you for taking the time to explore History Hub, the discussion space for the Library of Congress' latest crowdsourcing initiative.

We'd love to hear from you about what brings you to the project, how you're using crowd.loc.gov in the classroom or for your research, and the interesting things you've discovered while transcribing. Don't worry, you don't have to be an educator, researcher or even a regular participant on the project to chime in! You're welcome here, and we're grateful to all our volunteers for any time they can spend transcribing, reviewing, tagging or chatting about the Library's fascinating collections.

1. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC) Oct 23, 2018 9:45 AM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hello everyone! I'm Victoria, one of the Community Managers for our crowdsourcing effort at the Library of Congress. I worked on a few online crowdsourcing projects before I came to the Library, and I have a background in Renaissance and Medieval English literature. I'm also passionate about American literature and history--and excited to learn more! It's a privilege to work at the Library with such knowledgeable and talented staff who devote their lives to making the Library's treasures accessible to all. Thank you for taking part in crowd.loc.gov and helping with this important work. I look forward to the day when all of our manuscript and printed material is fully searchable on the Library's catalog.
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2. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Lauren Algee Oct 23, 2018 10:55 AM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hi Crowd! I’m Lauren Algee, another of the Community Managers for crowd.loc.gov. I’m excited to help lifelong learners and the historically curious out there connect with the Library of Congress and its vast and fascinating collections.

My background is as an archivist and before coming to the Library of Congress I worked at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History in Austin, Texas, the National Gallery of Art, and the DC Public Library (DCPL). At DCPL I managed the library’s digital local history collections. I also co-founded the DC Public Library's Memory Lab, a public space for digitization and learning how to care for your personal digital archives. I now serve on the board of the Memory Lab Network and encourage you to see if there’s a Memory Lab in your area!
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3. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Meghan Ferriter Oct 24, 2018 9:09 AM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hi everyone! I'm Meghan and I'm a Community Manager, too. I'm really looking forward to collaborating, sharing interesting things we find in our collections, and hearing more about what sparks your interest in history. The Library of Congress has such depth of resources and we're thrilled people are keen to help make them more searchable and useful to many people.

Before I joined the Library of Congress, I had the chance to learn from and partner with volunteers at the Smithsonian Transcription Center. I hope you'll explore those projects, as well. My background is as a historian and cultural anthropologist - across my research experiences, I've tried to understand the ways people share information, work together, work through conflict, and use stories and digital spaces to understand and relate to each other.

Can't wait to hear more about what you think of and find in our first challenge: Letters to Lincolnhttps://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/letters-to-lincoln/!
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4. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Elaine Kamlley Oct 24, 2018 9:23 AM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hi folks! I'm Elaine and the fourth Community Manager. Along with my colleagues, I am beyond excited to collaborate and learn from you all. Please let us know what you find interesting, what sparks your curiosity or what features you'd like to see in the application.

Prior to joining the Library of Congress, I was working at 18F, an office within the General Services Administration. 18F collaborates with other agencies to improve how government serves the public through technology.
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5. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Kelly Osborn Oct 24, 2018 10:22 AM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

CROWD looks amazing! I can't wait to give it a try.
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6. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Alan Walker Oct 26, 2018 10:01 AM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hi all. I'm a processing archivist here at NARA, and community manager for the "Researchers Help" space here on History Hub. Having spent the first half of my career working with NARA's photo collections, I am naturally drawn to LC's fabulous collections too. Recently I spent a great deal of time annoying the Prints and Photographs staff with caption submissions for some of the distressingly large number of "no caption" images in the National Photo Co. and Harris & Ewing collections. The most rewarding part was identifying two of NARA's early division chiefs:


                                               LC-H2-B-8017 and 8018 (P&P)
                                                      Roscoe Hill, Division of Classification, ca. 1935


                                             LC-H2-B-8253 (P&P)
                                                    Thomas M. Owen, Division of Accessions, ca. 1935

     With over 30,000 images labeled "no caption" in the Harris & Ewing collection (and many more with such
     informative captions as "Man seated at desk"), this might make an excellent CROWD project for the future!
     Best wishes to everyone involved with this exciting new venture.
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7. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC) Oct 26, 2018 2:11 PM (in response to Alan Walker)

Thanks for introducing yourself Alan, and for outlining your request/hope for additional functionality and collection types in Crowd. We've had a lot of in-house enthusiasm for this kind of functionality as we built crowd.loc.gov over the last year. It's definitely something we're keen to explore.
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8. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Shawn Mann Nov 1, 2018 7:37 PM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hi everyone. I'm ShawnMarie from PA. I have a little bit of a paper problem - in love with all of it. :-) My favorite things are women's magazines from the war years, recipes and maps. I have a degree in Geography but my day job is in IT Data management. I've always wanted to be a librarian and to help people find things they want to know more about so hoping I can help out this way.

ShawnMarie
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9. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC) Nov 2, 2018 9:39 AM (in response to Shawn Mann)

Welcome Shawn! We're so glad that you can fulfill some of your desire to help people navigate cultural heritage by taking part in this project. Thanks for donating your time and for introducing yourself. Happy transcribing, tagging and reviewing!

-Victoria, a fellow lover of paper and its digital manifestations
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10. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Sheena Striker Nov 2, 2018 11:39 AM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hi everyone! My name is Sheena and I'm from Ohio. I am the director of the Hardin County Historical Museums, Inc. in Kenton Ohio. My favorite things are old pictures and letters. I have a Master of Arts degree in History. I'm really looking forward to being able to contribute!
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11. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC) Nov 2, 2018 1:08 PM (in response to Sheena Striker)

Welcome Sheena! We hope you'll share the site with friends, family and patrons of your museum! Happy transcribing.
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12. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Filomena Borba Nov 7, 2018 3:41 PM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hi everyone! I'm Filomena from Portugal and I work in a University Library. I rely like history and everything related to books. I can't even get near a bookshop, it is my weakness, books. All kind of books and stories. And I'm very happy to collaborate with your project.
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13. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

Jennifer Parker Nov 9, 2018 9:28 PM (in response to V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC))

Hi everyone!

I'm Jennifer and I'm from California. I'm a scientist, but I also enjoy reading and US history. I love libraries too and am happy to contribute to a project that will help a major library make more historical US documents more accessible to everyone. If there are any documents from scientists that need to be transcribed I would be very excited to help out with that as well.

PS, When I was in Washington DC a few years ago I took a tour of the Jefferson building and it was love at first sight
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14. Re: Introduce yourself and meet the crowd.loc.gov community.

V. Van Hyning (formerly of By the People LOC) Nov 14, 2018 1:36 PM (in response to Jennifer Parker)

Thanks Jennifer, and welcome! Glad you got to visit the Library in person and that you want to stay connected. There might be some science related material in 2019, but it will depend a little on how much we transcribe of the collections that are already online.

If you are able to join us virtually next Monday--the 19th of November--we're hosting an in person and virtual event around the 155th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, which will also serve as a launch event for Crowd. Everyone is encouraged to sign on and take part in the Letters to Lincoln Challenge. Learn more here: https://crowd-dev.loc.gov/latest/
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