Transcribe-a-thons were meant as a way to invite the public into a collection. It's a little like the 19c literary annuals reproducing "great" works of art as an extremely small engraving that cd easily be distributed to those not living in urban areas near museums. The simulacrum = cultural wealth

I wish our c-suite would promote this kind of gen AI work instead of building new apps to optimize student schedules 🙄

It's so incredibly useful for scholars NOT at research-intensive universities here in the U.S. We don't get free to days to just amble around & think (which is so essential)

The transcrib-a-thons are an essential form of community engagement.

The NYPL menus project was so engaging & interesting, especially for any lay person living in NYC.

The Bentham project or Library of Congress projects still have lots of relevance to entice nascent scholars in historical work

I just posted about this! For this cash-strapped scholar, transcriptions outsourced by a verifiable tool (esp using the "deep thinking" mode) doesn't mean fewer archive trips. But, time spent verifying accuracy instead of transcribing them myself is so massive

The elderly tenant helping with organizing feels better having witnessed the code enforcement inspection (& the lovely code inspector) and appreciated all of my emails as examples of how to get support from our govt offices, including our elected official Council Member.

She doesn't feel alone

And, when I spoke with them, I *always* thanked them for their service as an under-resourced public servant. And, I meant it.

Shew...being a public humanities/digital humanities/collaborator was clutch.

We're not done yet. But so much closer with the full backing of tenant protections

I routinely reminded frustrated govt staff that they are dealing with a human being who is suffering. They always responded "Ok thanx for the reminder" Also bonded w/them in shared understanding as public employees I can *only* afford to live where I work in Silicon Valley *bc of* rent control

I shared all of this info and all of my legally- binding emails (bc legal secty to pay for grad school FTW) to these ineffective managers w/said elderly woman tenant who began chatting w/all of the other ladies who were suffering.

When this first all happened, I was furious; the manager delayed delayed delayed.

But, once I realized that I've spent 20 yrs as a higher ed advocate & the past 7 yrs working closely w/city offices, I got to work identifying how to submit complaints & petitions and regularly calling each office

And, they relied on me to do the research to remediate this fiasco (I have a FT job already!) I called every frigging county & city office for help & relied on my advocacy skills. Took some time, but they delivered to get me some help & reimbursement

I could hug the Code Enforcement investigator 💖💖

This all started bc manager hired a pesticide co to spray INSIDE my apt 109 days ago. The dude way oversprayed & I've been living in toxic chemical exposure (w/health side effects) since. Manager is more concerned about their liability exposure than fixing it.

1 elderly female neighbor in her slow moving campaign to convince them to report needed repairs said: "We are stronger together. Don't let them divide us." They are terrified rent will be raised if they "complain."
My 💖burst
Humanities at work 🛎️✊💪Storytelling, resource discovery, community support

My small apt community is full of 20-50yr long term elderly tenants, usually retired teachers, state workers & nuns. We garden, do puzzles, check in on each other.
A lof of them, older women who grew up not wanting to be a bother. So proud of our work to pull together for change.

Oof, I've had this happen, too, especially with use of Chicago style citations. My name referenced but then they go on to build on some significant findings but don't mention my work again :(

🤯🤩🛎️SHAZAM!!!
@archive.org to the rescue!
BC of Open Library, she can *borrow* the digital pdf of Boyle's index to add further data to the authors to ensure accuracy of little known authors for future scholars & users.

This is why we shd support Internet Archive 😻🫶(4/fin)

#periodicals @rs4vp.org

One resource has these dates for at least authors but ONLY in print form. For the engravers/artists, no one has created a db of their names. I own 2 print copies of the Boyle index of all authors in all Brit/Am annuals, but my grad research asst is 50 miles away in SF (3/+)

#periodical @rs4vp.org

Working w/an amazing SJSU librarian to create MARC records & accurate custom fields on @archive.org objects. We're also adding all of the data to Wikidata for larger access. We need to add birth/death yrs for more than 3000 authors, artists & engravers
(2/+)

#periodicals @rs4vp.org