Library of Congress | Volunteer Transcribers Needed for Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents
More Resources • Deadline: Ongoing
Would you like to uncover centuries of data yet to be discovered by researchers? Are you ready to challenge your linguistic skills? If so, the Library of Congress needs you!
The By the People crowdsourced transcription program has a unique opportunity for digital volunteers to transcribe tens of thousands of historical legal documents in Spanish, Catalan, or Latin. “Herencia: Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents” is a way for students, educators, and history-lovers around the world to engage with the Library and to make digital collections more discoverable and accessible for all.
Originally released in February 2020 in partnership with the Law Library of Congress, Herencia has drawn thousands of volunteer transcribers looking for ways to practice reading and transcribing Spanish, Catalan, or Latin, to learn about historical laws and statutes, and to make it easier for everyone to read centuries-old documents. These laws, statutes, briefs, and more from the 15th to 19th centuries touch on nearly every aspect of life – including state, church, and personal history. Aside from English language titles and short descriptions, few details about the texts, individuals, and significant historical moments documented within the collection have been cataloged. Names, places, geographical regions, and other details that would be of interest to scholars are still waiting to be unlocked through volunteer transcription.
Herencia is entirely online at crowd.loc.gov, so you can access it from anywhere using a web browser. Everyone is welcome to transcribe Library of Congress documents and you do not need to register to contribute. However, if you create an account, you’ll then be able to also review the transcriptions of other Herencia volunteers and see what items you’ve worked on. We especially need help with reviewing transcriptions. Many documents are transcribed, but fewer have made it through the review process to completion. Register by creating a username and password here.
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