Crowd-sourced geo-referencing a success

By on 28 January, 2014

CrowdsourcedMapsSuccess_630

In November of 2013, the British Library released 2,700 historical maps online to be geo-referenced by ‘the crowd’ as part of its BL Georeferencer project. In just seven weeks, all of these maps were geo-referenced, and are now ready for QA.

The precise location of each scanned map – for the over 50 cities and towns mapped by the Chas. E Goad insurance firm 1886-1930 – is now known. Places small (Goole, covered in just three maps) and large were included, with the giant of London making up more than 1,000 maps, as shown in the above graphic. All maps may be accessed here.

This is a great example of an inexpensive way to digitise historical archives, and should be noted by government bodies across the world.

The announcement of the successful completion of the project included the following thank you to the volunteers.

“Thank you to all the BL Georeferencer participants, and in particular to two volunteers who, since the release of 20 November, have contributed an outstanding amount of time and effort. Dr Susan Major added over 10,000 control points to the Goad maps, and in addition played an active role in offering feedback and suggestions. Maurice Nicholson, a past Top Contributor, submitted the most points for the military maps, and his contributions to Goad were second only to Susan.”

The maps are now in the hands of a team of select volunteer reviewers for QA the submitted metadata. Any maps that require further work will be released back out to the crowd over the coming weeks and months. If you would like to participate in this second release of maps, visit the BL Georeferencer.

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