The University Libraries now has two Crowdsourcing projects to allow users to "tag" or "transcribe" materials from our collections.  Crowdsourcing is defined as a distributed problem-solving and production process that involves outsourcing a task to a group of people -- it allows difficult and time-consuming projects to be tackled a bit at a time, and by a large group of individuals, working asynchronously and at their own pace.

Crowdsourcing allows users from the comfort of their own computer or mobile device to tag photographs, identifying people, places and things that were not recorded when the image was collected and not available when it was digitized. Historic University of Alabama photographs from a certain period are a snap to identify for alumni of that period.  Cryptic 19th century handwriting might be impossible to read for some, but for others it is an exciting puzzle just waiting to be decoded.  Crowdsourcing allows new roads to access materials, and a great sense of accomplishment for users.  We welcome your questions, comments, thoughts and ideas about these crowdsourcing projects.  Please contact us [1]!

Tagging Photographs

Transcribing Documents

Handwritten documents offer a unique challenge for users and reserachers.  Handwriting, especially  the handwriting from the 19th century or earlier, can be very difficult to decipher.  With this Transcription project, users can add valuable information to these documents by determining just what is written.  These transcriptions support full text keyword searching for the materials transcribed, thus adding scholarly value and information to the documents. For many, transcription is like a puzzle -- a great way to spend a few hours or a few minutes.  Try it here at http://transcribe.lib.ua.edu/  [4]