Help Us Transcribe

THIS PROJECT HAS ALREADY BEEN COMPLETED

Welcome to our North Carolina Veterans Oral History Transcription Project! The State Archives and State Library of North Carolina invite volunteers to help us make our materials more accessible to researchers by transcribing audio files of oral history interviews.

If you would like to participate in this transcription project by transcribing an oral history recording, welcome aboard! To get started, please read this page and the instructions included.

What are we working on?
Each of the veterans shown in the navigation menu on the right side of the page has an oral history recording that needs to be transcribed. When you click on the name, you’ll be taken to a page that includes information related to transcribing, including:

If you would like to learn more about the background and funding of this project, visit the About Us page.

How does it work?
Transcriptions are created by listening to an interview and typing what you hear on the audio.

The North Carolina Veterans Oral History Project uses Scripto, an open-source community transcription tool, and that’s where you’ll listen to audio and add your transcriptions. Below you’ll find instructions for how to get started and step-by-step instructions for using Scripto.

Register and get started 
If you would like to volunteer to help us transcribe these North Carolina Veterans oral histories, please first read the “Tips on Transcribing” page for detailed instructions on how to transcribe an oral history for this project.

Once you’re ready to get started, please register for a free Scripto MediaWiki account . After you have created your account, return to this project site and select an interview. Make sure you remember your Scripto MediaWiki username and password, since you will need to log in before you can begin transcribing.

Please let us know who you are by completing our volunteer interest form
After you have registered for your free Scripto account, please take a few minutes to let the State Library and State Archives know a bit more about you and how you would like to volunteer for this project by completing this short form. We would like to know whether you are interested in transcribing or reviewing transcriptions and which veterans’ interviews you are interested in working on. The limited information you provide will only be used for the purpose of communicating with you for the project. Please click here to fill out the form.

 

Instructions for using the Scripto transcription tool

The images below are screenshots of the transcription tool you will be using. Instructions for how to use the tool are in red.

1. Log in

2. Open the Edit Window

3. Begin Transcribing

Pausing, Saving, and Timestamping

Important: If you stop transcribing for the day but have not completed the entire interview, enter the time in the interview where you stopped (please type this immediately below the last sentence transcribed). You will need to use the slider to return to the spot in your interview where you left off, since the recording returns to the very beginning of the interview when you log out. It will save you a lot of time when you resume transcribing if you know exactly where you ended your last session.

Help Us Transcribe