A leading historical archive is looking for volunteers to help create a comprehensive record of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
The Scottish Political Archive, which is housed at the University of Stirling, is looking for people to help transcribe and record almost 3000 leaflets and photographs which have been held since the vote six years ago.
Once catalogued, the items will be digitised and made available to researchers and members of the public from around the world.
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The project is being led by Dr Chiara Bonacchi of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and Sarah Bromage of the SPA, and is being run in collaboration with University College London Institute of Archaeology, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, and the British Museum.
Volunteers can get involved even despite lockdown restrictions, as they will be asked to use MicroPasts, a free-to-use online crowdsourcing platform.
“This is an important activity to ensure that heritage organisations like the Scottish Political Archive can continue engaging audiences during this difficult period and in its immediate aftermath," Dr Bonacchi said. "Through this digitisation project, in particular, we hope to create data that will unlock new research on the political uses of heritage in the context of the 2014 Independence Referendum.”
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Volunteers can sign up to take part in the project via the MicroPasts website, with no minimum or maximum commitment required.
“We actively collected ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaign materials from the 2014 Independence Referendum campaigns," explained Scottish Political Archivbbist Sarah Bromage. "We wanted to find out what was happening at grassroots level in local communities; what was being put through people’s doors, distributed at campaign stalls and displayed in shop and home windows.
"This new project will allow us to take those materials to a global audience.”
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