Experience is not necessary, just a passion for the past

Interested in history? Do you have a passion for the past? Are you a lover of genealogical research? Then become a Heritage Helpers volunteer! Help to make collections accessible to the public from your own computer, at a time that suits you. Everyone can contribute. Experience is not necessary.

What is Heritage Helpers?

Heritage Helpers is a crowd sourcing website from Vitec Memorix where archives and museums can put forward their digitised collections to be made accessible by the public. The aim is to make many collections searchable in this way and to ensure that they are online quickly. As this ‘indexing’ is very time consuming, we are appealing to volunteers who would enjoy working with historical documents. Many hands make light work!

What will be expected of you?

The work requested may vary per project. In many cases it will consist of  typing information in fields next to the scan, for example: name, date and place of residence. However there are also projects in which you will be asked to give a description for photos. You can chose for yourself which project or projects you wish to participate in. All scans are distributed to two different participants, and then validated, so if you make a mistake it’s not the end of the world. In addition you can use the forum if you have any questions, where other volunteers and archivists from the institutions will be happy to help you.

What will you get in return?

There are participants who have done the input of 20,000 scans, but there are also volunteers who enjoy filling in a scan every now and then. Either way is fine, and every effort you make is rewarded with Heritage Helpers credits. You can cash these credits in with the institution who’s project it is for a small compensation, for example in the form of downloads of  scans or access to an exhibition.

Participate?

U can register, choose a project and start!

Questions?

If you have any questions, or wish to know more about Heritage Helpers, contact us at info@heritagehelpers.org.

‘This is great, I have just indexed my grandfather;  isn’t that fantastic!’ (Heritage Helpers participant)