Progress update, 1 to 7 October

Welcome to the progress update for the period 1 to 7 October 2011, which has once more proved very busy, and in which we have again improved the proportion of completed transcripts.

49 new manuscripts were transcribed this week, giving us a total of 1,940 transcripts. Of these, 1,689 (87%) – up 69 on last week – are now complete and locked.

The state of progress for each box is as follows (including the newly uploaded Boxes 62 and 97):

• Box 2: 189 manuscripts transcribed of 532 (36%)
• Box 27: 232 of 350 (66%)
• Box 35: 218 of 439 (49%)
• Box 50: 37 of 92 (40%)
• Box 51: 35 of 940 (4%)
• Box 62: 5 of 565 (1%)
• Box 70: 158 of 250 (45%)
• Box 71: 185 of 665 (28%)
• Box 72: 115 of 664 (17%)
• Box 73: 117 of 156 (75%)
• Box 79: 58 of 199 (29%)
• Box 95: 44 of 147 (30%)
• Box 96: 283 of 539 (53%)
• Box 97: 2 of 288 (1%)
• Box 115: 224 of 307 (73%)
• Box 139: 38 of 38 (100%)
• Overall: 35% of the 5,580 manuscripts uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

Boxes 96 and 27 saw the most activity this week.

You may also notice from the above that we have been able to sign off our first box of material as complete, though this is a little bit of a cheat. Earlier in the week we locked all of the manuscripts belonging to Box 139, apart from those on which transcription had already begun, as a Bentham Project editor has recently finished transcribing the material for a forthcoming Collected Works volume. There are a handful of transcripts from this box needing to be completed, but otherwise we can consider it finished (albeit unofficially!)

To provide an idea of the volume of work which volunteers have thus far contributed to Transcribe Bentham, we conservatively estimate that the ‘average’ manuscript contains 250 words – though some can be up to a couple of thousand words long. On this assumption, contributors to the project have cumulatively transcribed 485,000 words since September 2010. This is an astonishing level of work.

Thanks, as ever, to all those who have contributed this week, and for their efforts towards Transcribe Bentham‘s continuing success.