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Category: By the People Transcription Program

SAVE THE DATE for Douglass Day 2025, with a read text block. Features a dozen black and white images from the Library's Historical African American Perspective collection,

Join the Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon on February 14

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

Today’s guest post is from Lauren Algee, a Senior Digital Collections Specialist & By the People community manager at the Library of Congress. On February 14, the Library of Congress transcription program By the People will celebrate the legacy of Frederick Douglass with a virtual transcribe-a-thon of rare books and manuscripts related to African American history. …

Three suffragettes stand defiantly in the rain with a banner asking "MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE?"

Celebrating Six Years of By the People

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

Another incredible year made possible by volunteers  Happy New Year to all our Signal blog readers and to all our By the People crowdsourced transcription program volunteers! Every year, the By the People team publishes a “happy birthday to us” blog post right here on the Signal (you can check out previous years’ editions here …

TRANSCRIPT: Some time since a tenant of her for 3 years- was relating something she had told him- when I said and you knew she was lying when she said it= "yes-" and you believed her.= "yes"= - - why? "Why? because I couldn't believe any body could lie so- - That's "Mabelle"- Now S.E.B. - sent me please those 7 pages- indicate by marking any part or parts you might not want used and will copy, omitting same- on old blank note book paper which I used at that time, of which I have sufficient supply and it will be my privilege, not to say how I obtained the same-- which I would have had she not taken possession of same to destroy my evidence against her Lies- her treachery- her slandering of the name of Clara Barton in ways unbelievable and which I would not repeat on paper-

Volunteer Vignette: History is a Living Thing

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

In today’s post, Abby Shelton interviews a By the People volunteer, Justin Kern, who serves as the Division Communications Director for the American Red Cross. By the People is a crowdsourced transcription program launched in 2018 at the Library of Congress. Volunteer-created transcriptions are used to make digitized collections more accessible and discoverable on loc.gov.  Abby: How did you hear about By …

Black and white image of Roosevelt, leaning and pointing to his left.

Transcribe Theodore Roosevelt’s Papers Online at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

October 27th marks Theodore Roosevelt’s 166th birthday and we’re hoping you can help us celebrate the occasion! Yesterday, the By the People crowdsourced transcription program released over 20,000 new pages of TR’s papers into crowd.loc.gov. We’re calling on all #TedHeads (our favorite TR fans) to join us in transcribing these materials to make the Library’s …

A New Resource to Explore Library of Congress Transcription Datasets

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

Today’s guest post is from Madeline Goebel, a Digital Collections Specialist at the Library of Congress. As a reader of the Signal, you may already be familiar with By the People, the Library of Congress’s crowdsourcing program that allows volunteers to transcribe, review, and tag digitized pages from the Library’s collections. Further, you may already know …

Douglass Day 2024 promotional image of Douglass, with a dusty rose background.

An Outpouring of Love for Douglass Day 2024

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

Today’s guest post is from Lauren Algee, a Senior Digital Collections Specialist in the Digital Content Management Section and a By the People community manager.** Douglass Day 2024 marked the busiest day in the history of By the People, the Library of Congress’s crowdsourced transcription program. The transcribe-a-thon for the Frederick Douglass Papers was groundbreaking …

community managers carlyn osborn, lauren algee, and abby shelton, in the great hall at the library of congress

Celebrating 5 Years of By the People

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

It’s that time again: another By the People anniversary! By the People (BtP), the Library of Congress crowdsourced transcription program, is taking a moment this winter to look back on how we’ve grown and celebrate our 5th year! As we’ve shared in earlier birthday celebrations, BtP was originally incubated in 2018 by the LC Labs team and …

Centering Digital Collection Users: An Interview with Lauren Algee

Posted by: Trevor Owens

I’m excited to share this interview with Lauren Algee, one of my colleagues in the Digital Services Directorate here at the Library of Congress. My hope that interviews like this help to spread awareness about the background, experience, and interests of the people that support the Library of Congress. Along with that, I think it’s …

1912 Photo shows a crowd of girls waving handkerchiefs and smiling; possibly cheering.

Supporting Social-Emotional Learning Activities with “By the People” Transcriptions

Posted by: Carlyn Osborn

Today’s guest post is from Annette Nakshbendi, a Librarian-in-Residence in the Digital Content Management Section at the Library of Congress. How might a Library of Congress digital resource spark classroom discussion that reaches beyond a primary source’s content and context? You may have used the Library’s digital collections to help history “come alive” for students. …