If you are familiar with our Citizen Archivist program, you know that we encourage online volunteers to transcribe digitized historical records held in the National Archives Catalog. We often say that these transcriptions help unlock history by improving search results, readability, and access to historical records. So how exactly are your contributions unlocking history? A … Continue reading Transcriptions Reveal Life in the Trenches
Today’s post comes from Meredith Doviak, Community Manager for the National Archives Catalog. Meredith recently spoke to Dr. Jaime Cantrell, Visiting Assistant Professor of English at The University of Mississippi. Dr. Cantrell has introduced undergraduate students to the importance of archival research and materials by encouraging them to become citizen transcribers for the National Archives … Continue reading Teaching from the Archives
What excites us most is the potential for creative and unexpected uses of our API by the public, for any purpose.
Welcome to Sunshine Week, the week we celebrate open government and access to public information. This week, we are kicking off the development of our next Open Government Plan for 2016-2018. We need your ideas, suggestions, and feedback to make it happen! Submit your ideas by April 15, 2016: on History Hub in the Open … Continue reading Share your ideas for our next Open Government Plan!
Today's post comes from Suzanne Isaacs of the Digital Public Access Branch in the Office of Innovation. Recently I met Alex Smith through an email he sent to catalog@nara.gov. Through our correspondence I learned that he began transcribing our records as a retirement project. I was really interested in transcription through the eyes of a Citizen … Continue reading Virtual Volunteering, Retirement Project 2.0
Are you interested in learning more about the many different projects and employees at the National Archives? We are excited to introduce a new staff-run Twitter account: @ThisisArchives! Each week, a different National Archives employee will take a turn on Twitter, sharing details about our profession, projects we are working on, and what it’s like to … Continue reading @ThisisArchives staff Twitter account
As part of the recently launched Citizen Archivist Dashboard, you can now participate in the National Archives Transcription Pilot Project. By contributing to transcriptions, you can make these historical documents more accessible to the public. The transcription pilot features over 300 documents (about 1,000 pages) ranging from the late 18th century through the 20th century. … Continue reading Introducing the National Archives Transcription Pilot Project!
Throughout this holiday season, we encourage you to participate in the exciting activities featured on the Citizen Archivist Dashboard, which is available starting today. Check it out and try tagging, transcription, editing articles, uploading digital scans, and participating in contests all related to the records of the National Archives. We hope that you’ll share any suggestions … Continue reading 'Tis the Season to Participate Online!
We hope that you will be able to join us for the next meeting of the Researcher Forum on Friday, January 27, 2012, at 1:00 p.m. in Room G-24 at Archives I in Washington, DC. Archivist David Ferriero will join us for a discussion of NARA’s Citizen Archivist program. A special feature of the program … Continue reading DC Area Researcher Forum to be Held on January 27, 2012
If you are anything like me, you would love to volunteer more, but you don't feel you have enough time to make a commitment. Luckily, these days, anyone with a computer and internet access can easily participate in online volunteer projects. An upcoming public program at the National Archives will look at three projects where … Continue reading May 18th Citizen Archivist Program
