“We must be very respectful when approaching these personal lives and personal accounts. This is a relationship we are building with the past…. We have a responsibility to let them speak their truth the best we can discern it. That is how we honour the past.” – V. Hodgkinson
Our digital archive holds thousands of pages of handwritten diaries – many more than library staff or any one individual could ever transcribe alone, so your help matters. By transcribing even a few pages, you help make these hard-to-use but highly useful documents more accessible.
Genealogists and local historians will be able to quickly search for people and places from the comfort of their homes. Scholars can search specific themes and do qualitative, quantitative and spatial analysis. Viewers can enlarge images and use AT technology for their reading pleasure. Your transcriptions help everyone to quickly search for specific information, engage the past in new ways and enjoy it more easily.