It’s nearly #EMROCtranscribes day! I hope you’ve had a chance to listen to the introduction to Mary Hawker’s book and our wonderful speakers (Rachel Rich, Edith Snook and Tim Underhill), who bring some fascinating insights into working with recipes and recipe books. (Links to the recorded talks and registration for the speaker Q&A can be found in our previous post.)
In case you missed it, we also have a page that outlines how you can prepare for the transcribathon — such as setting up a FromThePage account or finding the sign-up for each page. The actual texts won’t open for transcription, however, until we kick things off at 11:00 GMT/7:00 EST on 4 November. The countdown is beginning…
One other thing that you could do, if you were so inclined, is to answer a little survey (no more than five minutes) so we can get a sense of our community members and your interests — it helps us to understand what you’re looking for in our transcribathons. Thank you!
We can’t wait to talk transcribing with you on Friday!
Our 2019 transcribathon is coming soon… November 5! Flex those fingers, boot up your computer, and get ready to join in, because this is no ordinary transcribathon.
We have lots of exciting activities planned to accompany our transcribing delights, which will run from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. GMT.
There will be:
subject hashtags on Twitter, besides #EMROCtranscribes, such as #feministOED, #materialhealthtech, #textures, and #animalproducts.
Zoom is an easy-to-use platform that enables participants to ask the EMROC team questions throughout the day and to chat with other transcribers. You don’t need any special tools, either. Just click on our Zoom link, download the exe (if you don’t already have Zoom), and you’ll be in. There are details here on how to join, participate, and leave. We are hoping that the chat and Q&A functions on Zoom will make it easier for novice transcribers to get help quickly, as well as bring the transcriber community together.
Speakers
The Department of History at the University of Essex is also hosting an EMROC panel on ‘Recipes in the Making’, which focuses on the manuscript we’re transcribing. Speakers include Amanda Herbert (Folger Shakespeare Library), Sara Pennell (Greenwich), and Anne Stobart (Exeter).
The panel will be recorded, though it won’t be up immediately…
Survey?
We would love it if you filled in our pre-transcribathon survey, which will take no more than five minutes of your time. The survey will help us to learn more about our participants’ interests and backgrounds.
Excerpt from Jane Dawson’s book. Credit: Folger Shakespeare Library.
Thank you for stopping by our transcribathon today. We’re so glad that you’ve decided to join us.
We’re kicking things off at the wonderful Wellcome Library in London at 10:00 UK time. The Library is kindly allowing Heather Wolfe (Folger Shakespeare Library) and I to use their Viewing Room for a pop-up event. Have digitized documents, will travel!
There are a few details about today that you might find useful before getting started.
The hashtag on Twitter and Instagram is #EMROCtranscribes.
If you’re not on social media, you can just leave your question as a comment on one of today’s transcribathon posts or email Lisa Smith (lisa.smith@essex.ac.uk).
A FAQ page that covers everything from whether you should modernise the English (no) or moving the transcription box around to how to represent what you see on the page (e.g. page breaks, symbols, and more).
A miscellanea of what the buttons on the transcribing platform (Dromio) mean, what a transcribed page would look like, and more.
Don’t worry about making mistakes or putting in all the fiddly coding. We’re triple-keying for accuracy (which means three people will do the same page) and will edit for a final version.
The most useful thing for us is that you write what you see on the page. In terms of the coding, it’s especially helpful if you capture the basics (line breaks, page breaks, thorn (often appearing as a y instead of th, as in ye) and expand certain words (see the section on semi-diplomatic transcription here).
If you’re a novice to early modern handwriting, my top tip is beware of the long s! It looks like an f, but should be transcribed as an s. You can read a bit about the history of the long s here. You might also be interested in learning more about the type of transcription we’re doing: semi-diplomatic. The Early Modern Manuscripts Online project at the Folger has a good information page on it.
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, keep in mind that all questions are good questions. If you’re having technical troubles or can’t understand our guides (user-related or platform-related), it’s helpful for us to know. If you’re having trouble deciphering a word, a community of fellow transcribers is here to help. If you want to know what a mystery ingredient is, the fun is in the discussions as others try to help.
One of the great delights of a transcribathon is people sharing the things they spot when transcribing. So please drop in to introduce yourselves, share your interesting tidbits, ask questions, and share your wisdom.
Jan Brueghel the Elder, Bouquet, 1603. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
We have a quick request before you start transcribing: would you fill in a very short pre-transcribathon survey? It will take no more than five minutes. Out goal is to learn a bit more about our transcribers and their knowledge before the event. (There will be a follow-up survey post-transcribathon, too.) The survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/THN8DZS .
Thank you for your help–both participating today and filling in the survey! We are so delighted that you’ve decided to work with us today and look forward to hearing more about it.
