FromThePage is a collaborative transcription platform designed to assist libraries, archives, and researchers in digitizing and making historical documents more accessible. By enabling volunteers and professionals to transcribe, translate, and annotate scanned images of manuscripts, FromThePage transforms handwritten or printed texts into searchable and shareable digital formats. This process not only preserves valuable historical records but also enhances public engagement by allowing communities to contribute to the documentation and understanding of their heritage.
Key Features and Functionality:
- Transcription: Users can add and edit transcriptions while viewing scanned images, facilitating a seamless workflow for digitizing documents.
- Indexing & Annotation: The platform allows tagging of people, places, and other subjects, creating an index that enhances searchability and provides context through annotations.
- Dashboard: Project owners and collaborators have access to customized views that display all activity within a project, ensuring efficient management and oversight.
- Version Control: FromThePage logs all edits and displays the edit history of a document’s transcription, maintaining transparency and accountability.
- Automatic Markup: The system suggests subject tags based on previously transcribed documents, streamlining the annotation process.
- OCR Correction: It imports raw optical character recognition (OCR text and provides a workflow optimized for correcting OCR errors, improving the accuracy of digitized texts.
- Language Support & Translation: The platform supports transcription in any language, including right-to-left scripts, and enables collaborative translation with parallel text comparison.
Primary Value and User Solutions:
FromThePage addresses the challenge of making historical documents accessible and searchable by converting them into digital formats through collaborative efforts. It empowers institutions to engage the public in preserving history, enhances the discoverability of archival materials, and supports academic research by providing accurate transcriptions and translations. By facilitating community involvement, FromThePage fosters a deeper connection between the public and historical records, ensuring that valuable documents are preserved and accessible for future generations.
