Request for Volunteers – ADM8 Project Document Transcription

At this time, we are looking for volunteers to help with the transcription of documents for the ADM8 Database Project.

Recently, Sam McLean has created a Document Transcription interface (which he blogs about here) to make transcription must faster and to help eliminate *many* of the errors that were introduced by the previous method of transcription (that included CSV files and PHP scripts). Volunteers will use this interface to transcribe the monthly Deployment Reports from ADM 8 volumes 1 and 2.

Global Maritime History does not receive any funding, nor is it monetized. Unfortunately, this means that there are no funds to pay transcribers for their time and skills. Volunteers will be publicly and prolifically thanked, and Dr McLean would also be happy to provide references for volunteers. Further, Dr McLean would be happy to help volunteers with web development/website management/database design/troubleshooting in exchange for their time (as far as he is able to).

Volunteers will be provided with:

Many of the reports are a single page, approximately 30 lines. Familiarity with the period (1673-1692), subject (the Royal Navy, its ships and officers) and documents of that time would allow transcriptions to happen more quickly, however they are not required and it doesn’t take very long to get one’s eye in. There will be no minimum contribution levels for volunteers- transcribing even a single report is very much appreciated

If you’re interested in transcribing a document (or more than one), please get in touch with Sam McLean.