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How to join 'By the People': transcription, review, transcribathons and resources
Summary
Library of Congress staff demonstrated the By the People site, showing the transcription interface, review workflow, OCR tool, transcribathon resources, profile service letters and how volunteers can track contributions and host events.
Lauren Algee, a community manager for By the People, walked attendees through the crowd.loc.gov interface and practical steps for volunteers to get started, review work, and host transcribathons.
Algee demonstrated site navigation features such as the homepage carousel, "Surprise Me" links that send volunteers to pages needing work, and campaign filters that let users show only pages that need reviewing or only pages that have not been started. She explained the color-coded campaign indicators: dark blue for completed pages, light blue for pages that need review and gray for items not started.
On the transcription interface Algee showed how volunteers "type what you see," save progress, and submit pages for review. She emphasized the value of reviewers: "We like to think of this review process as a safety net that gives you a chance to try it out, make mistakes, learn from them, all while knowing that someone else is gonna review your work before it's done." She also pointed out campaign-specific "how-to" tips and detailed guidance pages for edge cases such as sheet music or non-English material.
Algee demonstrated the "Transcribe with OCR" option, explained that OCR stands for optical character recognition and cautioned that OCR output can be imperfect (especially with thin paper or bleed-through). She recommended using the undo button if OCR-generated text is poor. On practical supports, Algee noted a contact form and the email address crowd@ask.loc.gov for direct help, and that registered users can download a service letter on Library letterhead from their profile page to document volunteer activity.
For volunteers interested in group events, Algee described Transcribe-a-thons and said the program provides planning resources including a template presentation and printable quick tips. She also advised that the program's resources and the webinar recording will be shared with registrants and encouraged prospective volunteers to register to access reviewer functions and activity tracking tools.
