Tools: January 2018 volunteer group goals & background
Our new group
Our new group starting in January 2018 will follow our usual format, with a team of volunteers working at times to suit each volunteer, with no minimum time requirement. They will be supported by Colin Greenstreet, acting as team facilitator.
We will work remotely, and no physical meeting will be necessary. Indeed, at least one of our new volunteers will be based in the US and another is in Canada, and we have had past volunteers from the US, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Germany as well as England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. We will coordinate volunteers with a bi-weekly Skype call, at a time suiting the volunteers. The facilitator will also be available at any time by Skype, phone or email, to help with palaeographical or other queries, including editorial questions.
The new group will be run in parallel with an existing one, which started in early December 2017. This first group consists of history students at Warwick university, and includes two students with strong interests in material history, and one student with specific interests in textiles. The group consists of seven Warwick University historians (second and third year undergraduates, but also one graduate, which Colin Greenstreet is co-facilitating with Dr Benjamin Redding, a Warwick historian and C16th/C17th naval specialist. January 2018 volunteers will be able to use any or all or the material we have developed for Warwick, including introductory material, palaeographical training, glossaries etc.
Confirmed participants
- Amanda Berkeley
- Freyalynn Close-Hainsworth
- Nicola Clarke
- Colin Greenstreet
- Dr Susan Mee
- Axel Hee Rømer
- Dr Deborah Sherlock
- Dr Samantha Thompson
Range of activities for volunteers
We have a wide range of potential activities for volunteers, including:
- Helping with the transcription of HCA 13/53
- Expanding our new Communal C17th Textiles, Garments & Dyestuffs Glossary
- Creating new biographies of deponents
- Participating in a key word spotting project we are currently structuring with the READ/Transkribus group, which will use semi-automatic handwriting recognition
- Participation in the research and write up for the Silver Ships project
We are keen for some exchanges between the Warwick students and the new group on Skype. We hope this will be interesting and beneficial for both groups.
For some background on using our wiki see: Basic wiki skills & palaeographical tips
For some background on the High Court of Admiralty and our documents see: Introduction to the High Court of Admiralty
