The Smithsonian Digital Volunteers center is an online crowdsourcing project managed by the Smithsonian Transcription Center. The project began in 2013, and seeks to engage the public through digital access and volunteer transcription in order to facilitate research and support the Smithsonian's mission to "increase and [diffuse]... knowledge." The project pulls from the collections of the eight Smithsonian museums, archives, and libraries.
To-date, over 6,390 volunteers have transcribed over 171,000 pages of text. On the website, every individual transcription project, such as a field book or diary, lists the number of contributors alongside the number of pages transcribed. Typically, 5-10 volunteers will work on a 50-100 page document. A transcription tutorial and background information about the transcription center's process is offered once volunteers have signed up for a free account. Volunteers first transcribe a document, and then a new volunteer will review the transcription, calling for either additional edits or approval. Following this, the Smithsonian staff will evaluate the work ,and either send it back for further edits, or approve the work. This system is a balanced way to make sure that multiple perspectives have approached the work, and sures that no one person is swamped with all the work. Transcription is easy. An image of the page in question is provided at left, and volunteers type what they see in a box at right. (I worked on a page from the 1919 Britton Diary, spanning August-December, which chronicled the daily life, drafted letters, and notes of American artist James Britton.
The website design is clunky - pages and drop-down menus are slow loading, and little general information is given about the project's history, transcription process, or end goals. Once volunteers register for an account, a more complete explanation of the project's process is provided. Overall, the Smithsonian Digital Volunteers (or #volunpeers, as the site likes to call them), is an established and demonstrably sustainable operation. Inter-institutional and thematic collections may be assembled online that could not be found at any one institution. The web interface, however, is prohibitively difficult to navigate for the casual browser. A better sense of the projects' history and processes, as well as a more open and intuitive design, is recommended.
The New York Public Library Lab's "What's on the menu?" project enlists volunteers to help the New York Public Library transcribe its collection of 45,000 historical restaurant menus. The menus are transcribed by individual dish, so users may search by menu item. (I was able to look up every transcribed mention of half a grapefruit!)
The project has a very clear FAQ and "About" page, which explains the project's history since it began in April of 2011, and how the project aids the NYPL's mission to provide "free and open access materials." The transcription process is explained up front as well. Just as the Smithsonian project, volunteers first transcribe a document, and then review the transcription. Following this, the New York Public Library Lab staff reviews the work, and folds the information into its existing and searchable set of metadata in order to standardize terms and entries. Unlike the Smithsonian, however, users do not need to create an account in order to contribute. In fact, users cannot create an account, which means that user numbers and statistics are not listed. This aside, the project has transcribed over 1,332,220 individual dishes, and over 17,540 completed menus, perhaps thanks to its open contributions.
Aid and instructions is easy to locate on the working transcription and review pages, and the website allows ease of access and searching by date and menu item for volunteers who like to jockey between projects. Overall, the project is open, inviting, attractive, and easy to navigate. Visitors may easily search, contribute, and learn about the project. The item-level searching made available by "What's on the menu?" provides a cross-referencing research service that would otherwise take a traditional researcher an impossibly long time to undertake, and provides a demonstrably sustainable and worthwhile contribution.
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