If you’re interested in history and have a little spare time, the Library of Virginia wants you! Sandy Hausman reports on a novel project for volunteers.
The Library of Virginia has scanned thousands of handwritten letters, diaries and documents – go to their website and have a look. But you can’t find them through a typical word-search. For that to happen, someone must type their content in the library’s database. So the state has put out a call for help.
Manager Cathy Jordan says there’s no pay for this digital initiative, but volunteers make a priceless discovery.
“You know we never think about how people from the past had a lot of the same trials and tribulations and victories and defeats that we have today. I mean it’s different technology, understanding and education and things like that, but the human condition has always been and always will be.”
Specialist Sonya Coleman says anyone with a computer can help out.
“You go to Virginia Memory.com/transcribe, and you just click down until you find a document you’re interested in, and you’ll see the document in one screen above and then right below that in another window you can just start writing what you see.”
And as in times of old, handwriting can be heard to read – another reason why having a transcript will help professional and amateur historians.
Already, about a thousand volunteers have checked in, adding transcripts that help tell the history of the Commonwealth and its people.
