Join us for a virtual information session about the By The People transcription project and prepare for the live stream of the Library of Congress' 2025 Douglass Day Celebration.

About By the People

By the People invites you to transcribe, review, and tag digitized pages from Library of Congress collections. Everyone is welcome to take part! Volunteer-created transcriptions improve search, readability, and access to handwritten and typed documents for everyone.

All transcriptions are made and reviewed by volunteers before they are returned to loc.gov, the Library's website. You don't even need to create an account to transcribe, but registered users can review other people's transcriptions and keep track of their contributions. Learn how to get started. By the People is powered by the open source crowdsourced transcription platform Concordia, developed by the Library of Congress.

We launched By the People in Fall 2018. The name comes from the closing line of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which states “...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." The name reflects the spirit of democracy of this transcription program, which asks you to join us in enhancing Library of Congress digital collections.

For more information, please get in touch with McCabe Rentz, SC Center for the Book Coordinator, at 803-734-4816 or mrentz@statelibrary.sc.gov 

Location & Parking: The event will be held at the South Carolina State Library , 1500 Senate Street, Columbia, SC 29201. On-street metered parking is available.

Enter between the two lions.

About By The People: By the People About By the People

Transcription help

The majority of handwritten documents in By the People were penned between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Spencerian Script (Approx. 1850-1925) is a script style considered the American standard writing style prior to the widespread adoption of the typewriter.

If you are new to historical transcription you may run into unfamiliar spellings and abbreviations common for this style of script. The resources provided below demonstrate many of these and how to transcribe them correctly.

• Handwriting in the Civil War, Sullivan Press
• How to decipher unfamiliar handwriting, Natural History Museum Archives (UK) - Quick reference guide explaining common letters and symbols used in 19th century script
• Palaeography: reading old handwriting, 1500 - 1800, A practical online tutorial, UK National Archives

Tutorial videos

As part of the 2021 transcribe-a-thon for the Mary Church Terrell Papers, the Douglass Day organization created tutorial videos to orient new users to By the People. The following videos are available on the Douglass Day YouTube channel:

• What is transcription? What is reviewing?
• Getting started: Transcribing & Reviewing
• Additional Features [Tagging and communicating with By the People]
• Frequently Asked Questions

Accessibility: FM Auditory Assistance, large print materials, and other accessibility accommodations are available upon request. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate, please contact the program organizer at least two weeks in advance.