Crowdsourcing in archives in Sweden

Maria Larsson Östergren and Gunilla Nordström

Conditions• The Swedish system of free and open access

• Strong legalization for recordkeeping (since 1618)

• Long tradition of keeping private collections in public archives

• The public access to information (since 1766)

• ”Young” and healthy elderly people

• Long traditions of adult education and life long learning

• The genealogical society

• Church records

Old traditions with voluntary workers in archives

Opportunities and advantages• Crowd outsourcing work

• Transcribe

• Registration

• Identify documents and motives

• Create index

• Create databases

• New context and content

• Awareness for archives leading to new collections

• Open access

• Also voluntary work for example in readings rooms

Limits and criticism

• The profession (no structuring)

• The unions (not regularly work)

• The quality checks (time consuming)

• Who is the producer and sender? Clear and available?

• Who decide what to do, and is it the most valuable task?

Threats?

• Limited access?

• Making money of voluntary work?

• How will the crowd react?

• Copyrights?

• Who is the owner?

Threats?

• Limited access?

• Making money of voluntary work?

• How will the crowd react?

• Copyrights?

• Who is the owner?