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Volunteers working on theÌýÌýinitiative have passed an important milestone, with overÌý.Ìý The success ofÌýTranscribe BenthamÌýalso looks set to continue as it is now part of a 3 yearÌýÌýwhich will use new technology to train computers to read handwritten historical documents.

Transcribe BenthamÌýinvites users to explore and transcribe the papers of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the British philosopher who was Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê’s intellectual inspiration.Ìý Transcribers can work on the broad range of subjects that preoccupied Bentham, including jurisprudence, crime and punishment, democratic reform, and religion.Ìý These transcripts are then used by the Bentham Project in the production of the scholarly edition of Bentham’sÌýCollected Works.ÌýTranscribe BenthamÌýis helping to spread awareness of Bentham’s writings at the same time as giving volunteers the opportunity to make a contribution to scholarly research.Ìý TheÌýTranscription DeskÌýis always ready to welcome any intrigued newcomers.

The next phase ofÌýTranscribe BenthamÌýpromises new opportunities to use technology to strengthen the connections between researchers, archives, and the public.Ìý TheÌýÌýproject has been funded by theÌýÌýto the sum of more than 8 million euros.Ìý It is an international collaboration focused on making archival material more accessible through the use of handwritten text recognition technology.Ìý At Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê, the project team includesÌý, General Editor of Bentham’sÌýCollected Works,ÌýÌýof theÌý, andÌýDr Louise Seaward, Research Associate at the Bentham Project.

Training computers to read handwritten text could potentially revolutionise access to the written records of European history.Ìý The automatic reading, indexing and searching of written material will make it much easier to access the information contained in archives across the continent.Ìý The READ project aims to implement this technology through avenues such as a transcription tool, a palaeography tutorial, a mobile application to scan documents, and a platform allowing archives to run their own crowd-sourcing initiatives.ÌýÌýTranscribe BenthamÌýhas already begun to work with handwritten text recognition via itsÌýTSXsite.Ìý Some of the technology behind the READ project was demonstrated in January 2016 at the ‘Ìýat the Hessian State Archives in Marburg held by theÌýÌýarchives project.Ìý Further workshops and presentations will be organised throughout Europe as the project progresses.Ìý Anyone who is interested in following the early stages of READ is invited to sign up for an account withÌý,Ìýthe transcription tool that will be developed during the project.Ìý Alternatively, they can emailÌýLouise SeawardÌýof the Bentham Project for more information.