The CRKN Transcription Project is a pilot initiative to crowdsource transcriptions for content in the Héritage collection, part of the Canadiana collections.
The Héritage collection includes 41 million pages of archival records, approximately 60% of which are handwritten. Typical Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, used to create searchable versions of typewritten documents such as books and newspapers, cannot be used with handwritten text because handwriting varies widely in shape and style. Manual transcription of handwritten documents can be used instead to provide full-text search capability and additional metadata for digitized records.
CRKN launched the Transcription Project in June 2020, with staff from 12 participating member institutions. If your institution would like to join the project, please contact digitization@crkn.ca.
CRKN thanks its members OurDigitalWorld and Library and Archives Canada for their support in developing and launching this project.
Resources for Project Participants
Transcription Guidelines: Instructions and tips for how to transcribe documents using the transcription tool
Join the community Slack channel! Troubleshoot with fellow participants and share interesting finds from the Héritage collection
Demo recording of the transcription tool.
Virtual office hours: Office hours with CRKN staff are available upon request by emailing digitization@crkn.ca
External Resources:
- Transcription Tips (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration; also available in PDF)
- How to decipher unfamiliar handwriting: a short introduction to palaeography (PDF, Natural History Museum, UK)
- Petit guide d'initiation : Paléographie (Archives départementales du Tarn, France)