Transcribathon

A transcribathon is an event running for a pre-determined number of hours (generally, 3-12 hours), in which participants transcribe and encode manuscripts, individually or in small groups, in the same room or across many rooms simultaneously.

If you are interested in hosting an EMMO transcribathon at your institution, please contact Heather Wolfe (hwolfe@folger.edu). EMMO transcribathons generally involve food, fun, entertaining manuscripts, transcription sprints, prizes, and an easy-to-use online transcription platform called Dromio. We tailor the manuscript content and the difficulty of the handwriting to the needs of the host institution, and offer a short tutorial in deciphering secretary hand if desired.

Transcriptions from past and future EMMO transcribathons will be added to a searchable EMMO database and made available to users beginning in 2017.

A timeline of EMMO transcribathons:

• June 2014: English Paleography: A Mellon Summer 2014 Institute (at the Folger Shakespeare Library), participants from a number of universities attended this month-long intensive training program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills. Transcriptions made during the institute were contributed to the transcriptions, tags, and glosses that will ultimately appear in EMMO.
• November 2014 - September 2015: Practical Paleography, an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
• December 4, 2014: Transcribe the Renaissance, a noon-to-midnight "transcribathon" in conjunction with the Kislak Center to be held at the University of Pennsylvania.
• December 8-12, 2014: Advanced Early Modern English Paleography, a week-long advanced workshop on paleography in conjunction with the Folger Institute.
• March 18, 2015: Transcribathon at UVa in conjunction with the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
• March 26, 2015: Roundtable discussion, Adventures in Crowdsourcing for the Humanities, Renaissance Society of America annual meeting, Berlin, Germany
• May 2015 - September 2015: Practical Paleography, an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
• May 19, 2015: Transcription Night, 5:30-8:30 PM, at the Big Board on H Street.
• May 18-22 2015. Week-long workshop (at the Folger Shakespeare Library) lead by Dr Heather Wolfe; participants from a number of universities attended this week-long program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills. The workshop was part of the Folger Institute Scholarly programs, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
• July 2, 2015: Panel presentation, "Crowdsourcing the Text: Contemporary Approaches to Participatory Resource Creation," Global Digital Humanities annual conference, Sydney, Australia.
• July 24, 2015: Presentation in Showcase of Digital Projects, Early Modern Manuscripts Online, Keystone Digital Humanities Conference, Kislak Center for Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
• October 7, 2015: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective (EMROC) at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.
• October 2015 - March 2016: Practical Paleography, an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
• October 24, 2015: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
• November 13, 2015: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Humanities Center, VCU Libraries and VCU department of English at the University of Virginia Commonwealth, Richmond, VA.
• December 10: Launch of Shakespeare's World, a collaboration between the Folger Shakespeare Library and Zooniverse
• December 14-18, 2015: Advanced Early Modern English Paleography, a week-long advanced workshop on paleography in conjunction with the Folger Institute.
• December 15, 2015: Transcription Night, 5:30-7:30 PM, at the Big Board on H Street.
• Spring 2016: presentations at various academic annual conferences (e.g., Renaissance Society of America, Modern Language Association, Shakespeare Association of America)
• March 30, 2016: Early Modern Digital Pedagogies, a half-day workshop on digital humanities pedagogy, offered by EMMO in conjunction with the Women Writers Project at Northeastern University, Boston, MA.
• April 6-8, 2016: Presentation in workshop sponsored by MEDEA at Wheaton College, Norton, MA.
• April 14-15, 2016: Presentation on Shakespeare's World & crowd-sourcing, alongside the National Archives & the Smithsonian Transcription Center for DPLAfest at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
• April 17, 2016: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.
• June 6-10, 2016. Week-long workshop (at the Folger Shakespeare Library) lead by Dr Heather Wolfe; participants from a number of universities attended this week-long program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills. The workshop was part of the Folger Institute Scholarly programs, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
• June 7, 2016: Transcription Night, 5:30-7:30 PM, at the Big Board on H Street.
• July 2016: English Paleography: Summer Institute (at The Huntington Library), participants from a number of universities will attend this month-long intensive training program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills.
• September 14, 2016: Transcribathon in association with The UConn Humanities Institute. From 10 am – 4 pm in the Great Hall of the Alumni Center.
• October 3-4, 2016: Presentation for the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) Workshop on Crowdsourcing and Novel Incentives in Language Resource Creation at the University of Pennsylvania.
• November 2016 - March 2017: Practical Paleography, an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
• November 9, 2016: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective (EMROC) at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.
• December 5-9, 2016: Introduction to English Paleography, a week-long advanced workshop on paleography in conjunction with the Folger Institute.
• December 6, 2016: "Paleography Pub Night!" held at the Folger Library. This will be a joint event between Introduction to English Paleography & the EMMO's Practical Paleography sessions.
• May 18-19, 2017 : EMMO conference hosted at the Folger by the Folger Institute

Further links:

The Collation EMMO

BBC World News: Cookbook features recipes to cure the plague

VCU Transcribathon: Creating and empowering a community of new paleographers

VCU Transcribathon: Can you read early modern English?

The Community of the Transcribathon