City Lights: Look Through Library of Congress Videos or Transcribe Documents for the Smithsonian

[mahatmakanejeeves]

City Lights: Look Through the Library of Congress' Videos or Transcribe Documents for the Smithsonian

On the Library of Congress' website, you can watch videos of American life at the turn of the 20th century or an educational workshop from last year.

AUG 24, 2020 2 PM

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Transcribe for the Smithsonian Transcription Center

A lot has happened this year: Outside of the global pandemic and protests against racial injustice, we’re also preparing for a historic presidential election. As a result, many people are looking to become civically engaged, whether by joining a march or tutoring kids who can’t go to school. If you’re looking to learn more about the past in the process, you could help the Smithsonian convert scanned documents from significant periods in American history in order to create online databases. The Smithsonian Transcription Center offers virtual projects where volunteers—branded as #volunpeers, especially on social media—type out the documents at their leisure. Got a free hour on Saturday morning? You could transcribe the diary of a 1920s farmer or official records from 18th-century bureaucracies. Recently, a group of volunteers helped transcribe over 100,000 pages from the Freedmen’s Bureau for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Be a part of history by making it more accessible. The Smithsonian Transcription Center is available at transcription.si.edu. Free. —Kaila Philo

Smithsonian Digital Volunteers: Transcription Center

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Join 28,889 "volunpeers" to add more to the total 636,110 pages of field notes, diaries, ledgers, logbooks, currency proof sheets, photo albums, manuscripts, biodiversity specimens labels that have been collaboratively transcribed and reviewed since June 2013 - Get started now!

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[soothsayer]

1. That sounds 100% cool

[Thekaspervote]

2. Bookmarking

[lostnfound]

3. Cool. But what are it won't be privatized and sold off, accessible only behind paywalls?

We can’t have nice things anymore.