U3A Volunteers’ Area

Please note that this page is now archived and for consultation only, and that the transcription phase of the project is now over.

For new volunteers

Since early 2022, the Davy Notebooks Project and the U3A have been collaborating. Our U3A volunteer group started out as a pilot group of around ten U3A members; the pilot group took to the transcription task with ease, and transcribed notebook 04B3 in a little under two weeks. Soon after, the pilot group decided that they’d like to become a ‘fully-fledged’ volunteer group, and this U3A Volunteers’ Area was therefore set up, to bring together all of the information and resources that our U3A volunteers will need as they continue to work on the project. We hold regular catch-up meetings on Zoom (attendance is, of course, optional), where you’ll have the opportunity to let us know how you’re getting on, and to ask any questions, or raise any issues, that you might have.

Hello, and welcome! The Davy Notebooks Project team are looking forward very much to working with you over the coming weeks. To get started, please read through the Getting Started guide and Field Guide documents:

Getting Started

Field Guide

We’ve also broken these documents down into smaller sections, in case you’d like to print or quickly consult a particular section:

Getting Started – 1 – Introduction

Getting Started – 2 – Signing up to Zooniverse

Getting Started – 3 – Locating our notebooks

Getting Started – 4 – Things to remember

Field Guide – 1 – Introduction and tips

Field Guide – 2 – ABC guide

Field Guide – 3 – Sample page transcriptions

Once you’ve done that, we’d really appreciate it if you would take part in this optional survey, which should take around 10 minutes to complete. The purpose of the survey is to better understand how you currently engage with technology, what your motivations for joining the Davy Notebooks Project might be, and how we might better tailor the work we do together to meet your goals and aspirations. The responses you provide, which will be fully anonymised and handled confidentially, will be very helpful to us:

Davy Notebooks Project U3A Collaboration – New Starters Survey

Once you’ve read through the documentation and completed the New Starters survey, it’s time to start transcribing! To go to our Zooniverse page, please click the button below:

Finally, help from the project team is always on hand if you need it. You can post your questions and comments to our Talk boards on Zooniverse, or you can Contact us directly. Happy transcribing, and we look forward to seeing you at one of our regular catch-up Zoom meetings!

For returning volunteers

Hello again, and welcome back! Here are the latest versions of the Getting Started guide and Field Guide documents: