-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Hi, Pete!
Your query was posted 5 months ago, and you may already have this answer, but for posterity's sake, here is the current "How to Transcribe" posted on Crowd.LOC.Gov:
https://crowd.loc.gov/help-center/how-to-transcribe/
I, too, had a bit of a time trying to find these instructs.
I'm pretty new here, and don't fully understand the Crowd.LOC.gov vs. HistoryHub.History.gov intersection.
Kim (ConkieTypes)-
Re: transcribing etiquette
as i understand it, both crowd and history hub are under the Library of Congress.
To put it colloquially a la Jack London, Crowd is the gang of hardy volunteers doing their thing in the gold fields, digging and uncovering nuggets where they lie. History Hub's crowd forum (where we are now) is the bar where they go to talk about it afterwards, swap stories, hear the old guys give sage advice (And you really need to listen to them) and generally get reassurance.
As far as getting assignments of designated work, not here -- the LOC puts up masses of work to do and folks just grab and do as they can. I"m having fun exercising my cursive skills on letters to Teddy Roosevelt. Saw one today in copperplate.
Have at it and have fun and good luck figuring out that shorthand.
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Thanks Charles. In past transcription work, a chunk of work was given to me and only I worked on it. Therefore, it was a culture shock to see that someone else had already transcribed the next page. I understand now that LOC is a free-for-all. I may be warming to the idea that it wouldn't be so hard to work that way.
Thanks for responding!!
Pete
-
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Thanks very much for your reply Kim. You were the first . I thought I asked something ridiculous because, as you discovered, my question was out there for 5 months. The link you sent me was the most comprehensive guide on transcribing I've seen. And it did answer my main concern, i.e. that LOC is a free-for-all.
I've given up on LOC. I am spoiled on being given a chunk of work that only I worked on. It allows me to really absorb the piece of history. Instead of LOC I'm either going back to the Trustees of Reservations in Massachusetts or trying to get some transcription in local libraries or museums.
Thanks again!
Pete
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Lauren Algee
Feb 26, 2021 9:26 AM
So sorry that we missed responding to your original post, Peter! It's been a whirlwind of a year in many ways for everyone, including those of use who manage our volunteer outreach. That said, we really hate to have left you hanging! But we're incredibly grateful for our volunteer community who jumped in with answers for you.
We're glad we haven't driven you to give up on transcription volunteering altogether! If you're ever willing to give By the People another go, we'd love to have you. Best wishes on all your future transcribing!!
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Hi, Peter!
Glad you saw my reply, but sorry to hear you became frustrated by the lack of controls over transcriptions, during the 5 month lag time.
I've been hanging around for about 3 weeks now, and have landed at the Freedmen's Bureau on https://transcription.si.edu/ for the past couple. I love the challenge of translating Spencerian & Copperplate scripts used during Reconstruction, and figuring out all the abbreviations commonly used for the time. Unfortunately, I have grown a bit disillusioned by the lack of controls (better termed as transparency), to know whom else I am working on a document with. It can feel like an "edit war," if we transcribers are unable to connect directly with other transcribers, especially when it is not easy (i.e., quick) to re-open a document for additional editing.
I've been transcribing since 2013, for The University of Nebraska Lincoln Archives & Special Collections, which first crowdsourced with UNL Yearbooks, and have since added letters from WWI and WWII soldiers, correspondence of famous Nebraskans, Board of Regents Minutes from the formative years, etc. http://transcribe.unl.edu/
As people have discovered that transcription as a good COVID-19 activity, I have found less work there yet to be done. Or maybe, I just longed to learn more about other parts of American history!
Regardless, the double-edge sword of having more individuals adopt transcription as a noble use of their time, there has been a slew of individuals for whom the word "detail" is bad. For others, being able to say they worked on a "5 stars out of 5 stars" in level of transcription difficulty is important, without gaining experience first. To know when one is in over their head is important.
You sound well experienced, having earned the ability to take sole responsibility for transcribing chunks of material, without worrying that someone will come in and undo it!
I'm hoping the LOC (or whomever coordinates this stuff) will add some stop-gaps into the current system.
I liken the current system to watching children at a lengthy water playstation at a Children's Museum... where they learn the importance of dams & locks; how to slow down, divert, and pool water. If these are addressed sooner rather than later, more experienced transcribers like you, will stick around during the growing pains. If not...
-
-
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
A lot of things turn up that aren't really covered on that transcribe page.
I noticed a lot of people do NOT follow the directions that are on that page, such as removing the hyphen from words that are split by lines, which they specifically ask you to fix because their search engine doesn't know what to do with hyphens. Quite frankly, the search engine should ignore - when it searches, and that is a coding error IMHO.
Also I noticed that people seem to glide over accents en and em spaces. — I found this handy little special characters guide (alt codes) https://tools.oratory.com/altcodes.html that I leave open for use. Holding the Alt Key down and typing the numbers will result in the character you want. I recommend using the num keypad.
Just use your best judgement when transcribing. I try to keep within the original formatting of the style. For instance, the latest transcriptions, I noticed that there were extra spaces before ! and ? Such as, "Is this an odd way to write something ?" I decided to leave the space there, as I felt it provided a break in the text that helped guide the readers eye, and when reading, seemed to give extra emphasis to the line. I'm not sure another person would agree with me, and they may choose to change it. There does need to be more standard guidelines, and I think perhaps they need to run people through some sort of test transcription which would make sure they understand the set of rules that should be applied, before continuing to just transcribe and edit. Had there not been other errors on the page, I probably would not choose to modify, the ? and ! spaces, but it really helped me keep track of where I was at.
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Thanks Heather. Also thanks for the link for the special character keystrokes. I'd agree that rules are there for a good reason and should be followed. My work for the Trustees of Reservations was reviewed before being posted so I put in a lot of effort to know their rules. When I had a question on how to handle a situation I could correspond directly with the reviewer for her opinion.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my query.
Pete
-
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
I'm having an etiquette moment. It feels like folks should it "submit" after transcribing, but I've encountered 100s and 100s in the TR collections where they're fully transcribed but only saved. Is this a norm that I'm misunderstanding?
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Hi Lauren,
By TR I assume you mean Teddy Roosevelt. Can you give a link or two to examples?
Judith
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Yes, sorry, Teddy Roosevelt.
Here's some (the header isn't completely transcribed, but you get the picture) and I'l ltry to remember not to finish them/click submit! They're transcribed, but only saved, not "submitted":
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
My understanding has been that even after we submit a page, it gets reviewed again by another person, as a safeguard. So someone probably did submit the pages you're looking at, rather than just save them as in progress. But they have to be submitted without any corrections once or twice (I'm not sure exactly how many eyes have to review the completed page) before it's no longer actually "In Progress."
Sometimes we are just making sure there are no more errors to correct on a fully transcribed page, and adding our approval.
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Abigail Shelton
Mar 26, 2021 9:01 AM
Hi all, wanted to weigh in quickly here! Lauren, your instinct is correct. If you've completed transcribed a page, then you should "submit" the transcription for review. That way it goes in the "Needs Review" queue to be approved by another volunteer. You should use "save" if you are working on a transcription and cannot complete it for some reason but would like to make sure that the edits you've made remain in the transcription box. "Saved" transcriptions enter the "In Progress" queue and can then be completed by another volunteer. If you are noticing a lot of "saved" transcriptions that look complete to you, feel free to hit "submit" and they'll enter the "Needs Review" queue.
And Samantha, thanks for chiming in about the review process! Transcriptions that are submitted need to be reviewed and accepted by at least one other person before they are considered completed.
Hope that helps clarify!
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
1 person found this helpfulOh! I see, those are actually sitting in the "In Progress" folder. Sorry, I have actually never seen anyone do that on the campaign I'm working on, so I was confused by the question. My mistake. Thank you for explaining, Abigail, and sorry to add to the confusion, Lauren!
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Thanks Abigail. You comments are very helpful and in general especially helpful to those who have done transcription under different rules before joining HistoryHub. (I used to "own" a body of work. My first attempt at HistoryHub was omg, this is a brutal free-for-all!!) (If not already in a guide for newbies, I hope HistoryHub will add your description of the process - especially targeted to those who have done transcription for previous organizations.)
The previous comments to my original post helped understand why it might seem brutal and your summary of the process is a capstone on how it is supposed to work. I'm deeply appreciative to you and others who chimed in and look forward to joining the fray.
Pete
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Thanks, Abigail!
There are hundreds of these in each series in the Teddy Roosevelt campaign, so I was starting to think I was doing it wrong. It's a bit frustrating when my only task as a transcriber not ready to review is to go in and make sure everything is typed and then click "submit." It also leaves a series looking like there are hundreds of "in progress" pages when really the campaign is almost or completely done!
I appreciate the confirmation of the ettiquite- I'll keep going in and cleaning up.lb
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Abigail Shelton
Mar 26, 2021 3:05 PM
Hi Lauren-I hear your frustration! But thank you for raising the issue and letting us know about it. We're brainstorming some ways to get the word out to folks about the difference between "Save" and "Submit." Look for a forthcoming History Hub thread on the topic!
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
2 people found this helpfulI have come across a different problem. People approving pages that are incomplete as in the pages were never fully transcribed. Also, pages accepted as completed where there are a tremendous number of [?] and errors. If you cannot decipher a page, leave it for someone else. And do not accept pages without reviewing them. It does no good for LOC to publish pages only to find out they are embarrassingly poorly done.
The important thing is to have fun and not to feel pressured to complete anything but just help move the process along to the best of your ability. I recently finished a section that I had been through before. As I went through it, I realized that people were accepting my pages without reviewing them. Typos I made and [?] I left were never edited. That is not helpful and puts more pressure on us to be perfect the first time. None of us should feel pressured. We are a team and should add something to every page we work on. Of course, that can include accepting a page where you feel it is well done and complete.
Sorry for the ramble but I have been doing this a while and felt my comments might be helpful to you and LOC.
Have a good weekend all.
Henry
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
1 person found this helpfulThis final acceptance of blatantly incomplete work with [???]'s in it or made-up words seems to be fairly common in the TR papers, and it's obviously problematic.
Just recently I've taken to doing a first quick pass of an entire section of the documents and moving all the obviously incomplete documents from "Ready For Review" back into "In Progress" when I see them. Then they won't get approved by someone not really looking carefully at them -- and any reviewer can still grab them to complete them. Then I go back to the start and work slowly through them all, carefully editing each one. If the problematic entries haven't been cleaned up by the time I get to them, I work to get them cleaned up.
It's slightly inefficient for my time to do this, but I think it's better for the body of work in the long run. Less reopening, fewer errors, etc. And in truth a "fast review" just looking for incompleteness can be done really quickly, as it's essentially a binary question -- No/Maybe -- where all the Maybes stay untouched in the Review folder.
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
I think you are doing tremendous work Diane and I fully agree with what you are saying. I have only edited pages like that as I have come across them but your approach, although more labor intensive, will assure that those documents have a better chance of being well done before being accepted. Lauren Algee Abigail Shelton I think it is time to reemphasize to reviewers that one [?] in a page is okay to accept but if there are many and the person reviewing cannot improve the page they should pass it by and leave it to someone else. Unless and until we have a system where we can reopen completed pages ourselves, it is a waste of LOC staff to have to reopen pages constantly for us, so we should make sure a page is as good as it can be before accepting it. Just my humble opinion.
Henry
-
Re: transcribing etiquette
Lauren Algee
Oct 27, 2021 12:58 PM
1 person found this helpfulThis is a really smart strategy, Diane. Thanks for sharing it!
As Henry notes below, there will always be some pages that can't be fully deciphered, and as a human-powered project, we try not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But we absolutely encourage you to keep taking a closer look at completed pages when it seems appropriate and to send us those you would like reopened.
The By the People team has been talking through the benefits and challenges of adding functionality to allow volunteers to reopen pages in still active campaigns on their own. Right now it's not technically possible for a few reasons, but we do hope that feature can be added down the road!
Lauren
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-