It has been a busy 13 months since we launched emmo.folger.edu in January 2017!
First things first, we wish to say a huge thank you to everyone who has transcribed with us – whether it is on our partner project Shakespeare’s World, at a transcribathon, in a paleography seminar, during our on-site practical paleography meet-ups and pub quizzes, &/or other – welcome to our expanding community, and we appreciate all of your efforts! We now have thousands of pages of transcriptions that we are busily vetting and encoding prior to publication on the website.
The Talk section in Shakespeare’s World remains a hive of activity, where our “volunpeers” tell us about interesting finds, discoveries for the OED (Another find by Shakespeare’s World; a startling antedating of parner meaning spouse), or updates concerning the Folger catalog and findings aids. I’ve been tweeting some of our fabulous volunpeer spots at @ShaxWorld. In the past year we’ve held four transcribathons, and (at least) three other independent transcribathons utilized our “Dromio” transcription tool. In addition, some of our contributors are using Dromio in their classrooms and for research projects. As a result of our last practical paleography series, we now have an incredible group of Folger docents who get together regularly to transcribe Folger manuscripts for EMMO. We have many new transcribers who were introduced to Dromio this year through introductory classes at the Folger Institute and at Rare Book School. I’ll be leading the next EMMO transcribathon on April 24, 2018 in association with the Digital Composition Lab at the University of Buffalo. More information on EMMO’s transcribathons, pub nights and other events, can be found on folgerpedia.
Tweet of a picture taken at VCU’s April 2017 transcribathon, in partnership with EMMO.
On May 18-19, 2017, EMMO held a conference, Early Modern Manuscripts Online: New Directions in Teaching and Research , in collaboration with the Folger Institute. This conference was a culmination of the project’s initial three-year phase, facilitated by a three year National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). More on this here!
Whilst we are sad that IMLS funding for EMMO 2014 -2017 has now ended (and with it we bid farewell & bona fortuna to Paul Dingman and Caitlin Rizzo), we are delighted that the EMMO project continues.
With a generous one year grant from the Pine Tree Foundation the EMMO project is currently transcribing and vetting all the recipe books in the Folger’s collection. We are working with transcribers from EMROC (early modern recipe online collective), Shakespeare’s World , paleography classes, and our dedicated docent transcribing team at the Folger, to achieve this goal.
Recipe for mince pies transcribed during EMROC’s November 2017 transcribathon. From the cookbook of L. Cromwell. Folger Shakespeare Library. V.a.8