Evolving Hands: Building Workflows and Scalable Practices for Handwriting Recognition and Text Encoding in Cultural Institutions

转录在21世纪发生了巨大的变化。从历史上看，这一直是志愿者驱动的，以提供"附加值"。然而，这导致了一个扁平和不民主的用户体验-需要预先了解数字化集合中的术语，主题，人物，地点及其拼写。在数字策展中改变这种模式的两种工具是光学字符识别（OCR）和手写文本识别（HTR）。OCR在大规模数字化中无处不在，但有很大的局限性，而HTR在文化机构中仍然不熟悉。这个项目进行了3个案例研究，涵盖了各种文档形式，以展示这些数字化工具如何迭代地融入策展。这些措施包括：来自联合国教科文组织格特鲁德·贝尔档案馆的19 - 20世纪世纪手写信件和日记、16世纪西班牙语和纳瓦特尔语抄写员的手稿、18世纪德语、20世纪法语书信，以及19世纪以后的英语和法语印刷品。联合案例研究转换早期英语戏剧（REED）项目记录的遗产印刷材料。通过涵盖各种时期和文件形式，该项目在这方面有真实的机会促进对文化机构的负责任和反应迅速的支持。纽卡斯尔大学案例研究--格特鲁德·贝尔档案：本案例研究使用纽卡斯尔特别收藏的联合国教科文组织格特鲁德·贝尔档案（http：//gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/），该档案记录了探险家、考古学家和政治代理人在1921年建立伊拉克王国时的活动。贝尔是戏剧、纪录片、故事片的主角，最近被提名为英国广播公司20世纪世纪偶像。另一个百年纪念项目是对她的日记、信件和照片档案进行数字化和编目。在此基础上，我们将选择最丰富的材料来训练贝尔手的HTR基础模型，并使用上转换的transmits来制作训练材料。巴克内尔大学案例研究--学术规模化生产：巴克内尔案例研究的中心是具有一系列数字经验的员工在多个离散项目中使用的流程。这些项目代表了测试HTR到TEI转换过程的不同模型。他们的资料来源于巴克内尔的特别收藏和对在美国、英国、欧洲和亚洲从事档案工作的教师的研究。它们包括抄写员的手，生活文件，信件，以及1500 - 1970年的半清晰打印的政府文件，有英语，法语，德语，拉丁语，纳瓦特尔语（墨西哥土著语言），西班牙语和越南语。这个案例研究将直接受益于大学的多个项目，并优化与世界各地的小型文化机构分享。联合纽卡斯尔/巴克内尔案例研究-转换里德打印收藏：卡明斯（AHRC PI）和Jakacki（NEH PI）将合作进行一个案例研究转换由早期英语戏剧记录（http：//www.example.com）项目产生的集合，该项目自1979年以来出版了1642年前现代英格兰，苏格兰和威尔士表演的编辑文献记录。然而，通过使用特殊符号和格式，在印刷品集合中提供的语义信息在OCR中丢失。Jakacki和Cummings以前使用HTR进行的测试表明，这些区别可以通过HTR转换为TEI。该项目将记录共享的工作流程，以便一致地向上转换为准备进入REED项目数字出版工作流程的可行材料。这有可能被用于所有其他里德遗产印刷卷（远远超过20,000页的丰富的学术材料）。

Transcription has evolved dramatically in the twenty-first century. Historically this has been volunteer-driven to provide 'added-value'. However this results in a flat and undemocratic user experience - requiring a pre-existing understanding of the terms, subjects, people, places, and their spellings within the digitized collection. Two tools changing this model within digital curation are Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR). OCR is ubiquitous in mass digitisation but has substantial limitations, while HTR is still unfamiliar in cultural institutions. This project undertakes 3 case studies ranging across document forms to demonstrate how these digital tools can be iteratively incorporated into curation. These range from: 19th-20th century handwritten letters and diaries from the UNESCO Gertrude Bell Archive, 16th century scribal hand in Spanish and Nahuatl, 18th century German, 20th century French correspondence, and a range of printed materials from the 19th century onward in English and French. A joint case study converts legacy printed material of the Records of Early English Drama (REED) project. By covering a wide variety of periods and document forms the project has a real opportunity here to foster responsible and responsive support for cultural institutions. This project seeks to establish more effective workflows that fill the gap between digitization, semantic-oriented encoding, and data discoverability.Newcastle University Case Study -- The Gertrude Bell Archive: This case study uses Newcastle Special Collection's UNESCO Gertrude Bell Archive (http://gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/), which document the activities of the explorer, archaeologist, and political agent who was instrumental in establishing the Kingdom of Iraq in 1921. Bell is the subject of plays, documentaries, a feature film, and recently was nominated as a BBC 20th Century Icon. A separate centenary project is digitizing and cataloguing her archive of diaries, letters, and photographs. Piggybacking on that we will select the richest materials to train HTR base models of Bell's hand and use up-converted transcriptions for the production of training materials. Bucknell University Case Study -- Scholarly Production at Scale: The Bucknell case study centers on processes used across multiple discrete projects by staff with a range of digital experience. These projects represent different models for testing the HTR to TEI conversion process. Their sources are drawn from Bucknell's Special Collections and research of faculty working with archives in the US, UK, Europe, and Asia. They include scribal hands, life papers, correspondence, and semi-legible typed government files from 1500-1970 and are in English, French, German, Latin, Nahuatl (an indigenous Mexican language), Spanish, and Vietnamese. This case study will directly benefit multiple projects at the university, and is optimized for sharing with smaller cultural institutions around the world.Joint Newcastle/Bucknell Case Study -- Transforming REED Print Collections: Cummings (AHRC PI) and Jakacki (NEH PI) will collaborate on a case study converting collections produced by the Records of Early English Drama (http://reed.utoronto.ca) project that has published since 1979 edited documentary records of pre-1642 performance in pre-modern England, Scotland and Wales. However, the semantic information provided in the print collections, through the use of special symbols and formatting, is lost in OCR. Previous tests using HTR by Jakacki and Cummings have demonstrated that these distinctions can be transformed with HTR to TEI. The project will document shared workflows for consistent up-conversion into viable materials ready to enter the REED project's digital publication workflow. This has the potential to be of use for all the other REED legacy print volumes (well over 20,000 pages of rich scholarly material).