Hanna Holborn Gray Fellow for Archival Transcription

Title: Hanna Holborn Gray Graduate Student Fellow in Archival Transcription

Division/Department: Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Reports to: Head of Archives Processing and Digital Access

General Summary:

The Special Collections Research Center holds more than 65,000 linear feet of University Archives and manuscript collections, spanning the 2nd century CE to the present. Thousands of documents, most handwritten, from these collections have been digitized and made available online as part of the Library’s Large Scale Digitization program. Transcribing these documents into human and machine-readable text will allow us to make collections searchable, and more accessible to a broader range of researchers.

Transcription of historic materials has complexities far beyond interpretation of diverse and older handwriting. Archival and manuscript collections often contain a complex mix of handwritten letters and papers, typed or printed items, drawings, photographs, and even objects. Documents can be fragmentary or damaged. A single sheet of paper might have been reused and contain multiple “documents.” A collection, or even a single document, might contain text in multiple languages.

The Fellow will gain experience in working with historic documents and collections, and in making these materials more accessible for research, teaching, and learning. The Archives Transcription Fellow will work with SCRC Archivists to determine best practices and develop efficient workflows for transcribing handwritten archival documents. The Fellow will research models for presenting transcriptions alongside digital images of documents, particularly as part of larger archives and manuscript collections.

Activities:

• Consult with SCRC staff about experiences transcribing documents from collections, and about the ways in which transcriptions may facilitate research, teaching, and learning.
• Identify and compare standards and guidelines for transcription of handwritten historical materials compiled by other libraries and archives. These will include guidelines for both scholarly accuracy and accessibility.
• Locate models for the presentation of transcripts on the websites of other libraries and archives.
• Identify and test free and low-cost tools to facilitate transcription and quality control.

Qualifications:

• Currently enrolled in a UChicago graduate program in good standing during the period of the fellowship
• Experience conducting archival research or working with handwritten documents from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills