For this course, I have the opportunity to work with the Smithsonian and their impactful Digital Volunteer Project. It not only gives the volunteers an amazing experience to participate in public outreach, but it is more important for the public to have an easier time accessing historical records. Primary sources can be a nightmare to read sometimes, especially when cursive handwriting is no longer the prominent form of writing, so the volunteers are helping transcribe these documents into print. Allowing the public the chance to know a deeper aspect of history could be connected to all the way back in chapter 1 of Dangerous Games and the craze to preserve history; doing so in a productive way while giving others a sense of security that the past is still there, and it has not been completely lost. The work is communal, meaning many volunteers collaborate on a single project through transcribing and reviewing each other's work before publishing to ensure as much accuracy as possible. The entire process requires a sharp eye for detail and historical knowledge of the time and people as an aid for context clues for otherwise unfamiliar words.

       People look around and continuously find themselves surrounded by technology, and archivists are no exception in utilizing and enhancing projects through databases. This opportunity allowed me to become more familiar with records and the organization of collections; it gave me an idea of how I could potentially set materials up on a website. Contributing to this project directly connects with my plans for preservation and digitization. Volunteering is helping me practice reading records and making them accessible for other archivists by creating easier searchability of documents to refer to researchers.