Virtual DCHDC Meetup: The Present & Future of Transcription

Join us for our online October DCHDC Meetup, which will be all about the present and future of transcribing digital cultural heritage! Lauren Algee of the Library of Congress' "By the People" crowdsourcing project will give an update on their recent work; Atiba Pertilla of the German Historical Institute's "German Heritage in Letters" project will discuss collaborating with volunteers in Germany to transcribe documents collected and digitized in the United States; and Hannah Storch of Pixel Acuity will talk about advances in OCR technology and how they relate to the needs and potential of transcription projects. This event will be hosted on Zoom.

Lauren Algee is a Senior Innovation Specialist in the Digital Content Management Section of the Library of Congress. In this role she serves as Senior Community Managers for By the People, which invites anyone to become a virtual volunteer with the Library of Congress. In her talk she will share why and how the Library engages the public to transcribe its digital collections and where the program is headed.

Atiba Pertilla is Research Fellow and Digital Editor at the German Historical Institute of Washington. He is the manager of the institute's project "German Heritage in Letters," an initiative to find, collect, and share online historic correspondence sent to and from German immigrants in North America. His talk will focus on how the project has built relationships with volunteers in Germany to transcribe materials collected in the United States.

Hannah Storch is a Project Manager with Pixel Acuity, specializing in cultural heritage digitization. After obtaining her B.A. in Classics and History from Grinnell College, Hannah attended Georgetown University, where she received her master’s degree in Art and Museum Studies. She has worked in collections and development at a variety of museums and archives, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the National Museum of African Art, and the National Museum of Natural History. Her role at Pixel Acuity has enabled her to partner with institutions, embracing the opportunities that collection digitization brings to institutions and the communities they serve. Working hands-on with physical collections, Hannah never ceases to be amazed by the ability of cultural heritage institutions to piece together the past, one collection object at a time.

Digital Cultural Heritage DC is a monthly meetup group for people interested in collecting, preserving and making available digital cultural heritage information. Our meetings begin with a few short lightning talks followed by social information exchange. This is a great networking opportunity for students, as well as anyone interested in learning about digital collections in archives, museums, libraries or anywhere else. We're interested in digital content of all kinds, including film/video, still images, text, datasets, video games and pretty much anything of value in digital form. We are an open and friendly group, and welcome all comers.

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