#CrowdCymru digital archives volunteer project

A working partnership with Glamorgan Archives, Cardiff University Special Collections & Archives , Conwy Culture | Conwy Archives, Carmarthenshire Archives, Swansea University Libraries & Archives, University of Wales Trinity St Davids Special Collections and Archives and the National Library Wales to deliver a digital volunteering project.

Previously funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and National Lottery Players, and National Library Wales, we are currently funded by the Welsh Government until March 31, 2025.

The idea for the project was born from a need to demonstrate that as project partners we were endeavouring to taking a swift, proactive, and collaborative approach to modernise our services to meet the ambitious roadmap of the Welsh Government’s Digital Strategy of Wales which aims to “improve the lives of everyone through collaboration, innovation and better public services”.

We are harnessing the exceptional knowledge of individuals across Wales – and beyond- to help improve the information about our collections.

Using a bi-lingual online platform developed by the National Library Wales, we invite volunteers to tag, index and transcribe documents to make them more accessible for researchers.

This process is equipping more people with the digital skills they now need to remain well-connected across their communities and to develop these skills to take full advantage in seeking opportunities in the workplace and for wellbeing. Moreover, we are paving the way for archives services to develop new models for remote volunteering without the need to travel that support the Welsh Government’s ambition to reduce our carbon footprint. Our volunteers mostly come from Wales, but we also have sign-ups from USA, Canada and Australia.

This project has been met, at every request, with offers of help and support and a true sense of working together supporting individual endeavours for the greater good of the whole sector. How wonderful to be part of such a great community.

We are keen to share experiences, learning and best practice from the project, with the heritage sector, and our National Heritage Lottery funded phase is written up in this Project Handbook.

Find out more about the project, and activities undertaken, through the links below. 

 

All content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License 

  • At the end of our National Heritage Lottery funded phase, we asked our volunteers to tell us – in a ‘One Minute Wonder’ - about their favourite document, image or collection. ​#Crowd Cymru:  One-Minute-Wonders

Archives Wales

 Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland)

Crowd Cymru participants