1. Structure and objective of the Letters 1916-1923 project
Crowd-sourcing and participatory engagement
Letters 1916-1923 is a crowd-sourced digital humanities collecting, digitising, transcribing, and making available a large scale digital collection of letters written about Ireland from 1916 to 1923. As a participatory engagement project, members of the public can get involved by uploading relevant letters in their possession (written between 1916 and 1923), or by transcribing letters in the archive. This digital archive is currently hosted by Maynooth University, Co. Kildare, Ireland, but may be transferred to another research body or memory institution in the future.
How we are gathering the letters
We appeal to the public to make privately held letters and accompanying attachments, such as photographs (‘Material’), available to the project for digitising, online publication and transcription. Digital copies of letters are also being gathered from memory institutions in Ireland and abroad.
Contributing to Letters 1916-1923
As a volunteer you do not need specialist knowledge or training in technology or history. Your commitment to the project is flexible. You can choose to transcribe and upload material at any time of day or night, in a short-term or long-term capacity. The onus is on you for the time you wish to spend engaging with the project. For further information on contributing to this project please visit our website: http://xl1916apps.mucampus.ie/wp-post/get-involved
2. Your personal user profile
Registering as a volunteer
In order to upload or transcribe letter, you need to register for a personal user account. The only personal information we require is a valid email address. Your username may be a pseudonym. If you register for an account on the Letters 1916-1923 website, an automated email containing a link will be sent to your submitted email address to validate your account. If you do not receive a validation email, please check your spam or junk mail folders.
How we use your personal data
Letters 1916-1923 will endeavour to store your registration details securely, will not share your details with a third party, and will only process your details in a manner compatible with the purposes of Letters 1916-1923.
Please Note:
‘It must be recognized that, in some circumstances, confidentiality of research data and records may be overridden by courts in the event of litigation or in the course of investigation by lawful authority. In such circumstances the University will take all reasonable steps within law to ensure that confidentiality is maintained to the greatest possible extent.’
Keeping track of your contributions
Your personal user profile keeps tracks of the number of letters you have uploaded and the number of letters you have transcribed. You may use this information to document your volunteering effort to a volunteering agency, your school, or your employer. This information is only accessible if you log in with your username and password and cannot be viewed by other website users.
Communications
From time to time, the project team may contact you with updates on newly ingested material, or upcoming events regarding the project. Additionally, you may be contacted to participate in a user survey, the purpose of which is to ascertain motivations, what works/does not work, feature requests, what needs to be developed for continued user involvement. Surveys will be designed in line with best practice, and data collected will be anonymous. There will be an option to opt out, if at any stage you wish to unsubscribe from Letters 1916-1923 communications.
Deleting your profile
If you wish to delete your personal profile, please use the “forget me” button. Your username and email address will then be anonymised in our system and you will no longer be able to use your credentials. If you wish to volunteer for Letters 1916-1923 again, please set up a new user account. Subscriptions to the email newsletter are handled separately, so please unsubscribe from the newsletter via the link at the bottom of any email we sent you.
If during your participation in this research you feel the information and guidelines that you were given have been neglected or disregarded in any way, or if you are unhappy about the process, please contact the Secretary of the Maynooth University Ethics Committee at research.ethics@nuim.ie or +353 (0)1 708 6019. Please be assured that your concerns will be dealt with in a sensitive manner.
3. Informed consent
By registering on the Letters 1916-1923 website as a volunteer, you agree
- that you have been informed about the project and understand what is involved;
- that the onus is on you for the time you wish to spend engaging with the project;
- that you can withdraw from the project at any time and have your details removed;
- to have your details stored and processed in compliance with the purposes of Letters 1916-1923.
The primary investigators for this research are:
Primary Investigator: Professor Susan Schreibman, Email: susan.schreibman@nuim.ie / Phone: 01 708 3451
Co Primary Investigator: Professor Chris Brunsdon, Email: Christopher.Brunsdon@nuim.ie / Phone: 01 708 6149