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The Bentham Project Research Associate opportunity

By Sarah Davenport, on 17 December 2012

The Bentham Project is currently advertising for a Research Associate (60% FTE) to work on a newly funded initiative called tranScriptorium.

The following text is taken from the advertisement:

The Bentham Project, in collaboration with partners from across Europe, has recently received a grant for a project entitled tranScriptorium, which aims to develop innovative, efficient, and cost-effective solutions for the indexing, search and full transcription of digital images of manuscripts, using modern, holistic Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technology.

The role holder will work with tranScriptorium partners (especially the University of London Computer Centre), to design and develop an HTR crowdsourcing platform, analyse the user needs and requirements of transcript correctors and visitors, carry out beta testing of the platform to ensure full functionality, and be responsible for the running of the crowdsourcing platform on a day-to-day basis.

The post is funded for 21 months in the first instance.

The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Friday 4 January 2013. To apply, or for further information, please see the full job advert.

Transcribe Bentham Project: a Synopsis

By Claire S Ross, on 28 May 2010

A Brief introduction to one of the UCLDH projects

By Valerie Wallace

Transcribe Bentham is a unique project funded by the AHRC DEDEFI fund and hosted by the Bentham Project in collaboration with the new Centre for Digital Humanities. Its purpose is to engage the public in the transcription of manuscripts written by Jeremy Bentham, the great philosopher and reformer. There are 60,000 Bentham papers in UCL’s library, many of which are untranscribed and unstudied, but which are potentially of immense intellectual importance. The project is unique in that it is harnessing the power of crowd-sourcing – a relatively new phenomenon – to aid transcription; something which has never been attempted before. We are designing a new on-line transcription tool using mediawiki which will be made available for use by others at the conclusion of the project. Transcribe Bentham is also a public engagement initiative as its aim is to promote Bentham studies generally and to encourage school learners and enthusiasts to participate. It is a heritage learning exercise which engages the community in the preservation and documentation of the nation’s history. An online discussion forum will encourage  input and social interaction thus widening  participation in the field. The community will be actively involved in shaping the presentation of history as the transcriptions will eventually form the basis of new printed editions of Bentham’s works, as well as a fully searchable on-line database. The project will, moreover, raise awareness of UCL, with which Bentham is intimately attached.

For more information about Transcribe Bentham you can visit the Transcribe Bentham blog, Twitter and facebook page