Introduction to Focus Issue

Abstract

The idea for this special issue came out of a shared investment among the journal editor, Juilee Decker, and the two focus issue editors, Meghan Ferriter and Christine Rosenfeld, in showcasing the Smithsonian Institution's (SI's) Transcription Center (TC) and how to unlock the power of the crowd in the context of cultural heritage institutions. It is with great pleasure that we introduce this special issue entirely dedicated to exploring the TC: outlining the goals of the TC; explaining how to build, manage, and integrate a similar crowdsourced portal into museum and archival operations; and demonstrating how the TC and similar projects can result in deep and sustained engagement among virtual museum visitors, satisfying their quest for lifelong learning. This introduction provides a brief overview of the TC and familiarizes readers with the terms that refer to common practices and units within SI, foreshadows the contributions of each article, and delimits the scope of this collection of articles by pointing to topics not covered. We hope that by the end of reading this special issue, you will have a better sense of the role of crowdsourcing within the context of cultural heritage institutions. The experiences and perspectives shared here are poised to help you feel prepared and excited to engage with said initiatives rather than being overwhelmed by them. In the most basic sense, the TC is a website and Web application. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; is open to anyone with Internet access across the world; and (by design) requires minimal technical requirements and support. The TC houses digitized SI records that are in need of transcription and supports the activity of volunteers in transcribing and reviewing these materials for the purposes of improving accessibility and searchability to researchers. Collections including digitized diaries, photo albums with captions, field notes, journals, specimen labels, and lab experiment logs all have a home on the TC. These types of materials are organized into projects and are available for volunteers to transcribe, with new projects released across the system weekly. The TC uses a peer review process. After a document is fully transcribed, it is reviewed by another volunteer and is then passed to SI staff to complete a final review to approve the page.