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CLJS 370: Prison Archives and Public Memories: Researching the Incarceration of Women and Girls in Washington

Transcription Tips

Below are some guides with tips & tricks to help aid you in your transcription work.

 

 

 

Evidence of a Life

Archivists like to say that they collect materials and objects of "enduring value" that people, families, and organizations create throughout their lives and/or work. These items are evidence of lives lived and functions of the people or organizations that created them. There are a lot of things that are "born-digital" that could be considered primary sources, but a lot of pre-digital items are often not digitized due to lack of resources, no prevailing interest, etc. Having "enduring value" can be a loaded phrase. What exactly does this mean and who gets to decide? This is going to vary based on who you ask. Institutions, such as the state and prisons have a prevailing interest in maintaining archives, but does this tell the whole story of these lives lived? Does it reinforce biased narratives about these individuals? While primary sources found in archives can help aid in identifying lives, we should also be cautious about these source's origins and what their motivations for maintaining them in an archive are, especially if they lack additional context. On the other hand, primary source materials such as letters written by those from marginalized groups, can shed light on different perspectives and provide more diverse and nuanced understandings of history and lived experiences. They challenge our notion of who is an authority, what makes a person an authority, and whose stories are preserved and told. It also provides their creator's voices that they might not otherwise have had. As you are working through your transcriptions think about the following:

  • Who created this document? What can you surmise about the author's identity or societal positioning? What communities, or organizations are they associated with, if any?
  • What issues do the authors of these texts care about and what are their goals? How do they use writing and/or visuals to communicate their ideas? 
  • What evidence do these documents give you about the social and/or political climate the authors were experiencing at the time they were written? What evidence is absent? Note any questions you have and identify unfamiliar concepts, people, events, or terms for further research.
  • How do your class readings and/or subject encyclopedia articles inform or alter your interpretation of the primary sources? 

 

 

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