Concordia

Overview

Concordia is an innovative platform initiated by the Library of Congress that empowers volunteers to transcribe and tag digitized images of historical documents. Launched in October 2018 as part of the By the People initiative, Concordia aims to enhance public engagement and improve access to valuable collections through collaborative efforts. This project is built on the principles of trust and user-centric design, ensuring that contributors feel safe and welcomed in their endeavors.

With a structured process of transcription and review, Concordia guarantees the quality of the contributions. Volunteers play a pivotal role, not just in transcribing documents, but also in reviewing the work of their peers to ensure accuracy and completeness. By making the transcriptions publicly available, Concordia supports an open and rich resource that enhances the understanding and accessibility of historical texts.

Features

• User-Centric Design: Built on principles of trust and approachability, making it accessible and inviting for volunteers.
• Collaborative Workflow: Transcriptions are done by volunteers and are subject to review by other volunteers to maintain quality.
• Cloud-Based Application: Hosted in the cloud, ensuring reliability and ease of access for users.
• Publicly Available API: Utilizes the loc.gov API to seamlessly integrate collection metadata and images.
• Export Options: Finished transcriptions can be exported easily as CSV files or individual TXT files, facilitating further use.
• Open Source: The codebase is released into the public domain, allowing anyone to use or modify it at their discretion.
• Community Engagement: Encourages contributions by allowing users to report bugs or suggest new features through an inclusive feedback system.