Progress update, 29 June to 5 July 2013

Welcome to the progress update for the period 29 June to 5 July 2013, which has proven to be a busy week on a couple of fronts. Firstly, during the last seven days, 8,276 words of Bentham text were transcribed by volunteers, along with a further 2,709 words of TEI mark-up.

5,758 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 29 on last week’s total. Of these transcripts, 5,486 (95%) have met the required standards, and have been locked.

The more detailed state of progress is as follows:

• Box 2: 437 manuscripts transcribed of 753 (58%)
• Box 27: 350 of 350 (100%)
• Box 35: 282 of 439 (64%)
• Box 41: 30 of 528 (5%)
• Box 42: 15 of 500 (2%)
• Box 50: 136 of 198 (68%)
• Box 51: 359 of 940 (38%)
• Box 62: 53 of 565 (9%)
• Box 70: 286 of 350 (81%)
• Box 71: 663 of 663 (100%)
• Box 72: 609 of 664 (91%)
• Box 73: 151 of 151 (100%)
• Box 79: 198 of 199 (99%)
• Box 95: 120 of 147 (81%)
• Box 96: 527 of 539 (97%)
• Box 97: 60 of 296 (20%)
• Box 98: 214 of 499 (42%)
• Box 100: 150 of 422 (33%)
• Box 107: 383 of 538 (71%)
• Box 115: 276 of 307 (89%)
• Box 116: 421 of 864 (48%)
• Box 139: 38 of 38 (100%)
• Overall: 60% of the 9,497 manuscripts currently uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

There were also a couple of interesting finds this week: among the unpublished panopticon manuscripts, volunteer Keith Thompson found mention of something called a ‘gagging machine’, while Lea Stern transcribed more of Bentham’s railings against the government over the abandonment of the panopticon scheme.

Thanks too to everyone who has tested out the upgraded Transcribe Bentham Transcription Desk: your feedback has been enormously helpful, and has been returned to our colleagues at the University of London Computer Centre while they put the finishing touches to the new site. We hope to launch the new version in the coming weeks – which will most likely result in the Transcription Desk being unavailable for a period of time – but we will give you plenty of advance warning before that happens.

Thank you, as ever, to all those who have given their time and effort to the project during the last seven days. It remains greatly appreciated by us all here on Transcribe Bentham.