News

Community Transcription – Thirty-Seven Months

It has been thirty-seven months since we opened the War Department archives to community transcription. Even after three years, we are still receiving regular requests for transcription accounts.

Here is a snapshot of transcription activity in the last month:

As of this morning, we have 1,809 users, with approximately 16 new transcribers signed up since the last update. Those volunteer transcribers have made 12,525saves to War Department documents, which is about 67 additional edits since the last update. We also know that, on average, each document is edited about three times before it is finished. Moreover, we have had 162,982 total page views.

A wide variety of people have volunteer as transcribers, including undergraduate and graduate students, independent scholars, genealogists, veterans, and ROTC students. Transcribers include teachers at every level of education, elementary to university. Those who specified an interest or focus mentioned topics such as the early Navy, treaties with Native Americans, particular regiments, and specific regions including Long Island, the Northwestern frontier, and Georgia and Alabama. Some also expressed a general interest in contributing to transcription projects.

As always, users may still register for a transcription account.