Welcome to In the Spotlight!

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Welcome to In the Spotlight!

mia

And here's a list of past newsletters:
09/08/2018 - Your input needed! Help us understand who's 'In the Spotlight' http://eepurl.com/bH8vf1
30/07/2018 - Celebrating 100,000 contributions on the LibCrowds platform http://eepurl.com/dCA9Nb
04/04/2018 - Shine a light on the past! Spring 2018 Crowdsourcing updates from the British Library http://eepurl.com/doXy01
21/12/2017 - British Library Crowdsourcing updates, Winter 2017 http://eepurl.com/dfgg0r
31/05/2017 - LibCrowds Spring Newsletter http://eepurl.com/cPwiMT

mia

We have new volumes up on the site!

And in other news, The Stage wrote about our project: 'The golden age of the playbill: how the British Library is rediscovering Victorian posters' https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/2018/playbill-british-library-victorian-posters/

Also, @beeashlell wrote 'Making Magic: conjuring and ventriloquism in In the Spotlight’s regional theatre volumes'
http://blogs.bl.uk/english-and-drama/2018/09/making-magic-conjuring-and-ventriloquism-in-in-the-spotlights-regional-theatre-volumes.html

NaomiClifford

mia Hi Mia, I've just joined. This is a question about transcription of titles. (1) Do I include the final full point after the title? and (2) If the title is given on the playbill in caps, do I transcribe it as caps? Thanks - Naomi

mia

NaomiClifford Welcome Naomi, and thanks for asking!

You don't need to include the final full stop after a title (as it is 'cleaned' up to help match across different people's typing).

You don't need to type in caps, even if the title is in caps. We tend to use 'title case', in which major words are capitalised but minor ones (the, a, of, and, etc) are not.

mia

Super-excited to have an article about the project in The Times! https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/roll-up-british-library-s-plea-for-its-playbills-7j697c8mg

Thanks to @NaomiClifford for sharing a photo of the article, it still somehow seems more real: https://twitter.com/NaomiClifford/status/1047113760261980161

NaomiClifford

mia Glad to help, Mia. Great project.

graemeandrew

mia This is fantastic work by the team and @alexmendes, am enjoying contributing while also thinking about other applications for LibCrowds.

mia

Over 120,000 contributions to the projects to date! That's such an amazing figure because it represents the activity of so many people. We're very grateful to everyone who's helped make the Library's collections more findable.

johnjo

It's always nice to get a Hooray, but now I find that all the available projects chuck confetti at me. Any chance of any new ones? I am already getting withdrawal symptoms!

mia

johnjo I'm flat out like a lizard drinking (as my fellow Australians probably don't say anymore) until Friday. There might be a tiny chance that @christian could add some before then

mia

@johnjo it looks like the wonderful @christian has loaded a new volume - how does https://www.libcrowds.com/collection/playbills/projects/161/iiif-annotation look to you?

He's uploaded others but there might be some backend issues with them that we're going to investigate.

johnjo

mia @christian
Yes, I found the new ones (dates) an hour ago before I read your reply. Thanks!

mia

A Masters student has asked if we could share his survey on crowdsourcing activities with you. Take a look and see if you can help: https://managementism.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_261txRNqYkfp7Jr

mia

Hello to our new contributors! We'd love it if you said hi here or on twitter https://twitter.com/LibCrowds

And did you know we have a newsletter? Sign up for quarterly (or so) updates: http://eepurl.com/btvBKT

robertgale

Hi! Discovered LibCrowds yesterday and once I started transcribing I couldn't stop until I had finished them all!

mia

Welcome Robert!

mia

Hello all!

Today we reached another milestone - 170,000 all time contributions. We're so, so grateful to you all for everything you do, and hope that our project provides an interesting distraction in difficult (or not-so difficult) times.

I've made two quick maps showing LibCrowds visitors around the world since January 1 2020: https://twitter.com/LibCrowds/status/1258426075648049152

Also, if you're on twitter, say hello! We love hearing from you.

mia

Welcome new contributors!

We're happy to answer any questions you might have - if you've wondered about it, someone else probably has too, so you're doing everyone a favour by asking.

And we'd love to hear about interesting things you notice on the playbills - people share mentions of famous actors, unusual designs, moments in theatre history and comment on things that seem unusual to modern eyes. You can tweet at @LibCrowds, add a comment as you complete a task or post here.

You can download an image, copy a link to a playbill or view the full metadata record via the icons on the function bar on task pages:

screenshot-2020-05-13-mark-titles-a-collection-of-playbills-from-miscellaneous-wolverhampton-theatres-1794-1819.png

mia

We add new volumes as tasks are completed, so it's also great to hear about hidden gems. I'm particularly fond of the creativity of the theatres and printers represented in the various locations included in the 'Pittenweem - Sandwich' volumes!

mia

New volumes are up! You're all so productive - thanks for keeping us on our toes.