I commend the National Archives of Singapore (NAS) for rolling out a Citizen Archivist Portal. (“Citizen archivists to be engaged in archiving Singapore’s past: MCI”; March 10, online)
This should be a win-win situation for the NAS and the public: The former gets help with its workload and the public becomes more involved with their social history.
However, if a photograph is captioned or a letter is transcribed with mistakes, what would be done to ensure that these are checked before they become available to the public?
The NAS is seen as the archival authority and even honest mistakes by well-meaning members of the public would be taken in good faith by users to be factually accurate. I hope there is a robust vetting process.
This should be a win-win situation for the NAS and the public: The former gets help with its workload and the public becomes more involved with their social history.
However, if a photograph is captioned or a letter is transcribed with mistakes, what would be done to ensure that these are checked before they become available to the public?
The NAS is seen as the archival authority and even honest mistakes by well-meaning members of the public would be taken in good faith by users to be factually accurate. I hope there is a robust vetting process.
