Europeana Transcribe: using the power of the crowd.

Europeana Transcribe is an online crowdsourcing platform for the enrichment of European digital cultural heritage. Our goal is to engage the public in transcribing and annotating Europeana’s vast collection of digitised items. Many of these items, especially those containing handwritten text, hold a treasure trove of hidden information, not yet displayed in the metadata and therefore not readily discernible nor searchable. By transcribing the text, annotating the contents and adding valuable descriptions they can become rich and powerful sources of information. The data gathered can then be checked, sent back to Europeana and become easily read, searched, and categorised to the benefit of the wider public.