Applications Open for PhD Studentship - Transkribus for Handwritten Text Recognition of Digitised Manuscripts
The University of Edinburgh, the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and the University of Glasgow, in conjunction with the READ-COOP, are seeking a doctoral student for an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award titled ‘Adopting Transkribus in the National Library of Scotland: Understanding How Handwritten Text Recognition Will Change Management and Use of Digitised Manuscripts’. The project has been awarded funding by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities.
The NLS aims to invest in mass digitisation of manuscript collections. Until recently, textual content has only been available to those who have the resources for manual transcription of digital images. This studentship will study institutional reception to machine learning processes for transcription of handwritten texts at scale. The use of Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) to generate transcripts from digitised historical texts can transform access to these texts for researchers, institutions and the general public.
The successful candidate will work with the NLS and its user community to investigate how HTR is changing access to text within digitised images of manuscripts, from both an institutional and user context. The studentship will also benefit from training, support, and networking opportunities via the Centre for Data, Culture & Society, the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and National Library PhD cohort activities.
The studentship will commence in September 2020. Closing date: 22 June 2020.
Full details and how to apply (go to ‘Adopting Transkribus in the National Library of Scotland’)