September 18th - September 24th, 2022
For the most, this project is fairly straight forward...
I review and download pdfs of letters, open the letters and transcribe the contents of the letters into a Word document. It is necessary to transcribe the letters into a Word document because a pdf is essentially a picture. Without transcription and metadata regarding the contents of the letters, it's impossible to know what is in the letters or where they are from.
This is where transcriptionists and archivists come in! Archives and repositories around the world have SOOOOOOOO much documentary materials that need to be transcribed but often do not have the staffing or funding to complete the project. Many institutions rely on the help of graduate students and volunteers to help with the workload. However, even with help, it can take YEARS to complete a project.
One of the issues I run into is that sometimes working on the project can feel like Groundhog's Day...just a lot of the same thing over & over. I have to complete 150 hours of Practicum work to graduate with my Archives & Special Collections degree. I try to complete around 8-12 hours of transcribing a week and divide those hours up over several days. I have a full-time job and a family so my "work hours" tend to be late at night and on the weekends. To combat the feeling of "sameness" I turn on a TV show or movie that I love and get myself into a rhythm. I have ADHD tendencies and the background noise from the TV helps me to focus on the task at hand and helps pass the time.
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