Transcribing the Past: Crowdsourcing Transcription of Civil War Manuscripts

Abstract

Libraries and archives are using crowdsourcing in various ways. From entering data to transcribing newspapers, it is a tool to engage users while accomplishing a goal for an organization. Crowdsourcing’s many benefits and challenges should be weighed when considering this technique. This article describes the planning, execution, and lessons learned from a grant-funded crowdsourced project at the University of Oklahoma to transcribe a diary and letters in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the US Civil War