Do you want to utilize your transcription and proofreading skills to make a meaningful impact? Or do you want to practice those skills so they can lead to a fruitful career, such as a career in the legal field, like legal transcription? Many organizations and crowdsourcing projects seek both experienced and novice volunteer transcription experts. Some aim to make digitized collections of books in the public domain, while some focus on accessibility and inclusivity. In any case, volunteer transcription has benefits that extend beyond helping your chosen cause.
In This Article, You’ll Learn How:
- Volunteering for transcription projects helps sharpen real-world transcription and proofreading skills essential for career paths like legal transcription.
- Projects like Project Gutenberg, the Smithsonian Transcription Center, and the Library of Congress offer accessible, impactful ways to contribute to public knowledge and preservation efforts.
- Volunteering builds your professional network and enhances your resume with meaningful, industry-relevant experience.
Benefits of Volunteer Transcription
As I said, volunteering your transcription services doesn’t just benefit the chosen organization; you also gain from such practices. Here are a few benefits:
Sharpen Your Transcription Skills
There are several free typing courses that you can use to increase your keystroke speed, yet, at the end of the day, nothing beats actual, hands-on transcription experience. This experience is particularly helpful for jobs in legal typing services. Volunteer transcription work provides that opportunity. Depending on your chosen cause (which we’ll discuss further in a bit), you can sharpen your transcription skills to cover a wide range of document and recording types.
Volunteers working on various projects may be tasked with handling historical, medical, or legal texts or records. Since most transcription companies cover similar industries, your stint volunteering for these projects can translate into meaningful experiences in your resume. Ditto Transcripts, for example, offers transcription services for clients of all types, including those for the government.
Build Your Network
Volunteer transcription can help open many doors for you. First, your volunteer record and collaboration efforts allow you to build a cache of possible references that attest to your work. Next, you can contact connected companies or organizations needing transcription services and establish connections with potential clients. Working with different organizations involves meeting people from diverse backgrounds and industries, which helps you further expand your network.
Support a cause you care about
Suppose you are passionate about a particular cause. In that case, you can make a difference by starting your own transcription business and specializing in transcribing for non-profit organizations that support that cause.
Project Gutenberg: A Digitized Global Library
Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the world’s oldest digital library. He named the project “Gutenberg,” after the inventor Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press, which increased the mass availability of books and other text for every member of society.
Project Gutenberg has collaborated with several other organizations, including Benedictine College in Illinois, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It also collaborates closely with Distributed Proofreaders, another volunteer-driven project that focuses on proofreading, editing, and digitizing public domain books. The project was launched in 2000 by Charles Franks to support PG.
The Smithsonian Institution Needs Digital Volunteers
The Smithsonian Institution — the world’s largest museum and research complex — is seeking volunteers for transcription projects that involve handling diaries, ledgers, logbooks, currency proof sheets, historic audio recordings, and many other materials. The project began in June 2013, and today, volunteers collaborate with Smithsonian staff to process scans of original documents—their digitization and transcription process covers material from the 16th century up to the present day.
As of November 2023, the project has more than 80,000 “volunpeers” and they have transcribed 1,287,025 pages. Don’t let that number scare you off; the Smithsonian Transcription Center is still open for volunteers. The Smithsonian Collections grow by the day, and volunteer transcribers will be busy with thousands of archives and records.
The Smithsonian Transcription Center encourages anyone curious or passionate about helping to volunteer, and everyone is welcome. The project has virtually no requirements aside from a computer, decent Internet access, and a minimum age requirement of 14 and above. Additionally, the Center does not require volunteers to sign up; anyone can transcribe anonymously. The goal of the Transcription Center is to preserve historical knowledge, create full-text transcriptions, and create a library of historical and digitally searchable documents.
The Library of Congress: By The People Project
The Library of Congress is seeking volunteer historical transcriptionists to transcribe and review U.S. historical documents. The initiative’s primary goal is to improve readability and searchability for all historical materials in their collection, as well as promote accessibility of such papers for people with disabilities or those who require assistive technology.
Volunteers can freely choose which campaigns they want to participate in and browse the collection to see which documents or materials interest them. All transcription is done on their website, and the platform includes improvement functions like image view filters and various adjustments to help make the process easier. Like the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress volunteers can freely transcribe without registering for an account; however, only registered users can review pages and track their progress.
The National Archives And Records Administration’s Citizen Archivists
Similar to the previous two institutions, the National Archives is looking for volunteers to transcribe documents for the National Archives Catalog. Unlike the last two, the organization requires volunteers to sign up for an account. Once done, they can choose what projects or “missions” they want to help with.
Current selections cover a wide range of topics for document and audio files, which include: World War II oral histories,
- Correspondences of the Director of the Women’s Bureau from 1918 to 1920,
- Medical transcription files from the Civil War,
- Court-martial records from the Battle of Bamber Bridge, and — believe it or not —
- Unidentified Flying Object records from the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force, including eyewitness statements, interview recordings, and official reports from civilians and military personnel.
In hindsight:
| Project | Focus / Activities | Volunteer Requirements |
| Project Gutenberg | Digitizing, proofreading, and editing public domain books; oldest digital library | Volunteers help digitize and proofread books; open to anyone |
| Smithsonian Transcription Center | Transcribing diaries, ledgers, logbooks, currency sheets, audio recordings, etc. (16th century–present) | Minimum age 14; computer + internet; anonymous transcription allowed; no signup required |
| Library of Congress – By The People | Transcribing U.S. historical documents to improve accessibility, readability, and searchability | No registration required to transcribe; registration needed to review & track progress |
| National Archives – Citizen Archivists | Transcribing documents/audio: WWII oral histories, Women’s Bureau (1918–20), Civil War medical files, Battle of Bamber Bridge records, UFO files, etc. | Must sign up for an account; choose missions to work on |
How To Be an Effective Volunteer Transcriber Or Proofreader
All the organizations in this article openly accept anybody who wants to volunteer their time to their causes. However, some people might find it intimidating to begin transcribing and proofreading text and audio recordings.
Experienced transcriptionists and proofreaders already know how the process unfolds, as they do this type of work for a living. Their years of experience don’t hurt, either. For ordinary people, here are some tips on how to transcribe, proofread, and edit like a pro:
Focus on The Task
It might be tempting to think of transcribing and proofreading as another activity that can be done on autopilot, but that’s hardly the case. Proofreaders and transcriptionists must focus on the work, carefully reviewing every word on every page to achieve the best possible results.
Be Patient
Typical book pages have about 250-300 words, depending on font size, text density, and spacing. Meanwhile, a person reading silently can get through about 200-230 words per minute, although that’s not ideal for proofreading. Transcribers, on the other hand, can usually type anywhere from 40 to 100 words per minute. Don’t worry; you don’t need to get on that level immediately. Be patient, take things slowly, and thoroughly review every aspect of the page in front of you. And don’t forget that you can make errors while correcting something, so be cautious of those.
Read Out Loud
You know how it’s easier to hear grammatical errors when you read sentences out loud? Well, the same principle applies here. Fast, silent readers tend to speed through any book or page, using context clues and other details to understand most of what they’re reading while skimming through it. Proofreading requires more care because you’re here to spot errors. So don’t be shy to read any sentence aloud.
Volunteer To Help — And Sharpen Your Transcription Skills
Project Gutenberg, The Smithsonian Transcription Center, The Library of Congress By The People Initiative, and the National Archives’ Citizen Archivist program are excellent initiatives that allow anyone interested in literature and history to volunteer their time and efforts for a good cause. Help from experienced transcriptionists and proofreaders is always appreciated, and you don’t need to work in those industries to assist with the project.
The great thing about this is that any proficiency you develop while working with these institutions — transcribing quickly and accurately, proofreading, and editing — are all marketable skills. Who knows? Maybe your stint with one of these projects will lead to a career in transcription.
Having a background in transcription within a large organization such as The Library of Congress or the Smithsonian, looks great on a resume, and for us, we see it as an excellent asset.
Start A Career With Ditto Transcripts
When you want to deepen your transcription skills and make it a career, consider working with us! You might be asking: “Why Ditto?”
We are America’s most trusted transcription company. Behind that, we’re a team of outstanding, determined, and committed transcriptionists – and if it describes you, then we’re happy to add you to the family.
At Ditto Transcripts, our output is guaranteed to exceed 99.9% accuracy. Combine that with security compliance and legal admissibility, and you see our goal tis o be the last and only transcription company our clients will ever need.
The best part? We do not break their bank. Our transcription prices are among the most competitive in the industry. It’s easy to understand, and we do not charge hidden costs. In fact, we allow our clients to decide if they need verbatim transcripts, so that if they do not, we do not charge them for it.
Speaking of clients, here’s just one of hundreds of happy testimonials:
Ditto Transcripts is a Denver, Colorado-based FINRA, HIPAA, and CJIS-compliant transcription services company that provides fast, accurate, and affordable transcripts for individuals and companies of all sizes. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote.