Transcribing
Follow these steps to transcribe a work held in BHL’s FromThePage installation. These instructions
assume that transcribers already have accounts in the system. To sign up for an account, click the “Sign
Up” link in the upper right corner of the home page, and follow the instructions given.
1. Navigate to http://transcribebhl.mobot.org
2. From the FromThePage home page, click the "Log In" link in the upper right corner.
3. Supply the username and password for a FromThePage user and click the "Log In" button.
4. From the FromThePage home page, click the "Dashboard" link in the upper right corner.
5. Click the collection in which you want to transcribe books from the "Collections" section of the page.
6. Click the book you wish to transcribe under the "Works" section of the page.
7. Click the "Help transcribe this page!" link next to the page you wish to transcribe.
Alternately, click the smaller "View this page" link. If you choose the “View this page” link, you will need
to then go to the "transcribe" tab to make the transcription editable.
Note that pages that have partial or complete transcriptions do not include the “Help transcribe this
page!” link. To update the transcription of such pages, you will need to choose the smaller “View this
page” link.
8. Enter the transcription. If there is nothing to transcribe, set the page status to "Blank/Nothing to
Transcribe". If you need to stop before finishing the page transcription, set the page status to
"Incomplete Transcription". If you complete the transcription, clear the page status (or just leave it
blank). When done click the "Save" button.
9. Click the book title in the page header to return to the complete list of pages in the book, or click the
"Next Page" link.
10. As necessary, repeat steps 7-9 (if you returned to the list of pages in the book) or 8-9 (if you
proceeded to the next page) to continue transcribing.
Transcription Conventions
Helpful resource: For a list of scientific and common names of North American birds, see:
http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species
General rule: Please transcribe exactly what is in each page image.
For the Ornithological Diaries of William Brewster:
The Brewster Diaries typically have two-page images as shown below. When transcribing two-page
images, simply type in all the entries from both pages sequentially, as if the text were all on a single
page. Treat each day’s entry as a new paragraph. Many of these two-page images include up to six days
(six possible entries). You will find that many of the dates are empty—Brewster wrote nothing for that
date. When transcribing such pages, please record only the dates with actual entries, using a full date
for each entry (e.g. January 29, 1866) even though most of the typescript dates on a page do not appear
as full dates. Please see the example screen shot and transcription below:
The transcription for this page should look like this:
Monday, January 29, 1866.
Saw an immense flock of
snow buntings flying: they
feed at this season (as do also
snow birds tree sparrows and gold finches)
on the seeds of certain tall bank
weeds.
Wednesday, January 31, 1866.
I heard plainly a flock of cherry
birds which are the first.
I do not think that the
blue jays are around now
for I have been to all
their haunts without seeing any.
Thursday, February 1, 1866.
A mottled owl was seen to
day; seen again on the 4th;
shot on the 5th
Note that the line breaks are exactly as they appear in the original document, and that the text from the
second page is placed directly beneath the text from the first page, i.e., the transcription treats this as if
it were a single page.
General guidelines for both Diaries and Journals:
 In general, parentheses are used when they are part of the original document and square
brackets are used for insertions by the transcriber.
 Transcribe entry dates verbatim, but if the month, day, or year was not written in the original
date entry, please add the missing piece of information to the transcription (see above).


Transcribe the line breaks exactly as the author has written them, and transcribe any
hyphenation that may be at the end of a line break as it appears in the image. Where a new
paragraph is indicated by indentation, put two spaces at the beginning of the line.
No spaces are needed before punctuation, and only use one space after a full stop. Transcribe a
dash as ‘ – ‘, that is, a hyphen character with a space on each side.

Please transcribe any special characters or symbols such as °, ♂, or ♀ as normal text in
square brackets, for example [degrees], [male], [female], etc.

If unsure of a word, put a [?] in the transcribe box. If unsure of letters in a word, put a [?] for the
letter. For example: lett[?]r. Also use a [?] for illegible handwriting or damaged handwritten
pages.
If the author has written in the margin of the page, put this transcribed text at the bottom of the
page or at the end of the relevant section, and bracket the text with [margin] and [/margin]. For
example: [margin]this text was written in the margin[/margin].
If the text has been underlined, just transcribe as normal.
If there is a diagram or photograph, then use [diagram] or [photo] at the place of the object.
If a word or sentence has been crossed out or erased (but is still visible), bracket the deleted
text with [delete] and [/delete]. For example: [delete]crossed out text[/delete].
If there is text inserted ^ into a sentence, then simply incorporate into the transcription text
without using the ^.





Summary of usage of square brackets
Use square brackets for:
 Uncertainty about words or letters in the original: [?]
 Marginalia: [margin]text[/margin] (to be placed at bottom of page at end of regular text, or at
end of relevant section of page).
 Diagram or photograph: [diagram] or [photo] (insert where object occurs in the text)
 Strikethroughs or text deletions in original: [delete]crossed out text[/delete] (insert where
deletion occurs in the text)

Transcription of symbols: [degrees], [male], [female]
Below is a sample page from Brewster’s Ornithological Journals with a transcription showing
proper formatting, and examples of some of the above conventions (highlighted in yellow).
The transcription for this page should look like this:
1888
Feb. 13
East Watertown, Mass.
Clear, perfectly still and warm for a winter day.
Over the E. Watertown ground this morning
starting at 10.30 and getting back at 1 P.M.
Shortly after entering the woods behind the cemetery
I saw two Creepers playing about the trunk of a
pine flying round and round as they ascended in a
cork-screw course. A Nuthatch was calling a little beyond,
Crows cawing in the distance. No other birds in these
woods.
[margin]Sitta
Carolinensis[/margin]
The snow was nearly a foot deep, crusted in the fields
but among the trees loose and powdery. Saw a gray
squirrels track in the cemetery woods.
Crossing the road and climbing French’s hill I
found a number of birds assembled in this favorite
haunt of theirs. In the row of cedars just below the
pines were about a dozen Juncos twittering and flitting
along the wall one or two occasionally practising the trills
& warbling notes so often heard in March. In the old
oaks near the crest of the ridge two Creepers were calling
to one another. I shot them and they proved to be a
pair; the [male] sang once or twice in low tones.
[margin]Certhia[/margin]
In the belt of cedars to the westward I found numerous
traces of a small Owl which from the [?] of the ejected
pellets I think must have been N. acadica. These
pellets were composed wholly of the hair & bones of mice;
yet a single mouse track that dotted the snow under
these cedars was the only mouse sign that I saw to-day.
Perhaps the Owl was only waiting to capture him before
changing his hunting grounds!
[margin]Small Owl[/margin]
Pausing a moment on the warm, sunny edge
of this grove I thought, sadly enough, of the many
many times years ago that I had stood in this