Over the last 6 months, the archive team have been working with a new group of volunteers on the first of our transcribing projects.
As part of our focus on the Hope Bourne collection, we reviewed the weekly articles she wrote in the early 1980s. We quickly realised that these were some of her best nature writing, but that the versions we had were in a fragile state and difficult to read.
Sara Hudston, the author of the new book about Hope’s life, was keen to access these articles and so we began to recruit volunteers to transcribe them into new typed documents.
There were around 120 articles, and transcribers often needed to view multiple images to see the whole piece. They were often faint, smudged or illegible, and the work needed concentration and patience. Many of the transcribers tell us that it was a rewarding task that they really enjoyed.
Our transcribing team of around a dozen people came from all over the South West, even as far away as Cheltenham, and are now nearing the end of this first project. These valuable writings are now accessible and are already being used. If you want to read some of them, they will feature in “ Hope Bourne: A Life Outside”, to be published by the society in mid November.
We are very grateful to our transcribing volunteers, and are getting ready for their next challenges to transcribe the letters of Ernest Mold, and material related to Alfred Vowles.
If you would like to join them, please get in touch with The Exmoor Society.
