An emergent system for the creation and dissemination of manuscript transcriptions

1
An emergent system for the creation and
dissemination of manuscript transcriptions
Major Qualifying Project

• Oliver Ho
• Chirag Patel
• Ravi Patel
• (Ricardo Kligman)

2
Typical Transcription Process
Publishes
Requests
Receives
Uses
Creates
3
Our Project

• Makes manuscript images accessible on the web
• Facilitates transcription using these images
• Allows sharing of transcriptions
• Makes searching for transcriptions possible

4
Types of Transcription
5
Recent Digital Transcription Projects
Improving on Digital Transcriptions
Publishes
Scholars
Paid Transcribers
Requests
Uses
Digital
Hires
Creates
Receives
Creates

• Is not cost-efficient
• Only projects of special importance done

6
Marie
7
Manuscript Markup Language (MML)

• TEI Compatible
• Intuitive Interface
• WYSIWYG Output

ltbox type"Text" corner1x"134" corner1y"33"
corner2x"196" corner2y"66" fontStyle"BOLD
fontSize"24 fontType"Monotype Corsiva"gt
JHS
lt/boxgt
ltbox type"Image" corner1x"331" corner1y"132"
corner2x"379" corner2y"173"gt ltdel
typeoverstrikegt la fiera de los
montes lt/delgt Fri-Dec-06-14_25_59-EST-2002
_9.jpg lt/boxgt
ltdel typeoverstrikegt la fiera de los
montes lt/delgt
8
Manuscript Accessibility

• Metadata
• Information used to catalogue and identify
  manuscripts
• Used as a means of sharing and searching
• Currently supported manuscript metadata
  standards
• ISAD(G) General International Standard Archival
  Description
• Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
• Goal Eliminate barriers to resource sharing

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Transcription Assistant Standard Metadata
Transcription Assistant Standard Metadata
ISADG Standard Metadata
Dublin Core Standard Metadata
Creator
Name of Creator
Author
Identifier
Reference Code
Catalogue Number
Description
Scope Content
Content
Media Type
Media Type
Format
Width
Width
Length
Length
Physical Characteristics
Physical Characteristics
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Manuscript Image Format XPG
XPG Contents
Type
Transcription Assistant Standard Metadata
Title
Author
(Total of 65 elements)
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Manuscript Image Format XPG
Requests
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Transcription Metadata
Creates Transcription
Sends Appropriate XPG Image
Loads XPG Image
Enter Transcription Metadata
Resulting Output
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MML File Contents
MML File

• Manuscript (i.e. image) metadata (inherited from
  XPG)
• Manuscript image (inherited from XPG)
• Transcription metadata (user defined)
• Transcription text encoding

Author John Doe Organization WPI Transcription
Name 08121847TaxRecords Transcription
Description Tax records
ltbox type"Image" corner1x"331" corner1y"132"
corner2x"379" corner2y"173"gt ltdel
typeoverstrikegt la fiera de los
montes lt/delgt Fri-Dec-06-14_25_59-EST-2002
_9.jpg lt/boxgt
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Emergent System
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Future Goals

• Implement automatic box drawing.
• Implement handwriting recognition for word
  suggestion.
• Client-Server system.
• Create rating system for submitted transcriptions.

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Conclusion

• The system will
• Accelerate exponentially the availability of
  transcriptions.
• Improve the ability of historians to produce
  research material.
• The systems will be to manuscript transcription,
  what the WWW is to other domains.

17
Acknowledgements

• Professors Fabio Carrera and Stanley Selkow for
  their guidance.
• Professors Joel Brattin, Jeffrey Forgeng and
  Wesley Mott of the Humanities Dept, and Mr.
  Thomas Knoles (curator of manuscripts) at the
  American Antiquarian Society.

For more information please visit us at
http//www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/IGSD/Projects/V
enice/Center/Projects/MQP/Transcription or write
us at transcription_at_wpi.edu