This research guide includes tools and guidelines to assist you with your transcription assignment. Handwritten documents are not always easy to read or decipher. Also, there is a whole field devoted to the editing of historical documents. Transcribing and annotating historical documents, such as letters and diaries, open up primary sources to those that will not always devote the time and energy to sit in an archives to read original documents or have the capabilities to read older handwriting. Transcribed documents also allow for quicker review of keyword and subjects if the researcher is stretched for time.
Therefore, the work you will produce for the transcripting assignment will find a permanent home with the letters and diary pages that you transcribe and be a major help in our efforts to better disseminate our vast holdings to a wider audience.