More Content, Less Context

Abstract Current and future user expectations are not being met by the hierarchical structure of archival description and the emphasis on creating context that often comes at the expense of digitizing and releasing content in ways that are legible to both humans and machines. We propose a model of community and volunteer engagement that focuses limited staff time on the creation of web-searchable content through volunteer-driven ‘full text finding aids’ and scanning projects. Drawing on our individual experiences at the Folger and Zooniverse, and our collaboration on Shakespeare’s World, a crowdsourced transcription project, we advocate for community engagement via onsite and virtual crowdsourcing. Creating access to otherwise non-machine-readable content such as manuscript images, can expose archival silences, fill gaps in the historical record, better serve and include more diverse audiences, and create new pathways of discovery.