Kansas Historical Quarterly

As seen in the brief profiles appearing on the Honor Roll of Volunteers, participants come from many locations and walks of life. Many have a long-time interest in the history and culture of Kansas and the American western frontier. Most are experienced users of computers and the Internet, but newcomers and novices are also welcome. Some volunteers are natives of Kansas, while others might be called "cyberKansans." All are united in a spirit of voluntary service to the worldwide community of Internet users who find interest and utility in the results of this work.

Like the original Kansas settlers in the 19th century, most volunteers take pride in their status as pioneers. They enjoy being part of the Kansas Collection all-volunteer, history-on-the-web publishing venture. This forward-looking initiative is a dramatic embodiment of the "Global Village" concept discussed many years ago by communications philosopher Marshall McLuhan and other futurists.

We welcome and deeply appreciate the contributions of anyone who is able and willing to help us accomplish the ambitious project of scanning, digitizing text and graphics, proofreading/editing, converting to HTML, and posting the many thousands of pages published in the Kansas Historical Quarterly from 1931 to 1977. This labor and skill, if purchased at market rates, would cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is a testimony to the dedication of KHQ volunteers that they freely give of their time, energy, and skill for this worthwhile undertaking. We also appreciate the Kansas Historical Society granting us permission to publish this work on the Internet.

2.0 Role of Volunteers

2.1 Types of work needed

Volunteers scan (or in some cases keyboard) text and graphic content into electronic format, proofread and edit the electronic version to ensure that it matches the original document, and convert the electronic material into web pages. A volunteer may do one or several of these tasks. The opportunity to help allows for lots of flexibility. There are no set deadlines, but of course we hope to make steady progress toward the goal of publishing the entire archive of the 1931-1977 Quarterly -- an estimated total of 15,000 to 20,000 pages!

2.2 Useful skills

For editing, proofreading skills are needed. Some typing ability is required to correct errors. Experience with word processing programs is needed to view documents and correct errors; the more experience a volunteer has, the speedier this process will be. Scanning skills and equipment are not essential (scanning can be done by other volunteers), but may expedite the process if a scanned file needs corrections.

For converting the electronic material into a format which can be viewed on the Internet, knowledge of HTML is necessary and experience in website development and design is highly desirable. Skill in using standard web browsers is also useful in viewing work as it is being converted to HTML.

To send completed work to KanColl, skill in using electronic mail (including using attachments) is desirable but not required. Volunteers can also send the scanned and edited output via U.S. mail on a floppy disk if preferred. Contact Tod Roberts by email thorsdag@comcast.net for details on how to package and address the disk.

2.3 How to volunteer

Anyone interested in volunteering for the KHQ project should send an email message to Tod Roberts thorsdag@comcast.net. In addition to performing scanning, editing, and HTML composition chores himself, he is coordinating the efforts of other KHQ volunteers.

3.0 Preparing Digital Text

3.1 How volunteers obtain material to be scanned

Volunteers may have access through a public library or private collection to original issues of Kansas Historical Quarterly published between 1931 and 1977. If such access is not available, the volunteer can obtain the requested material by contacting Tod Roberts (thorsdag@comcast.net). He will make arrangements to send a hard copy via U.S. mail. The volunteer will then scan this material and create a new HTML text file to be edited.

To select an article, please see the contents of the Kansas Historical Quarterly at t his link. Please note that hyperlinked titles are for articles already published on the web; titles with volunteers' names following in parentheses are in process. All other articles are available to you.

3.2 Initial and detailed proofing of scanned text and graphics

Volunteers should conduct a basic "quick-proof" of the text and graphics by comparing the raw HTML text with the original material. (See Section 6 below, "Tips for Proofreading.") It is especially important at this point to eliminate obvious errors such as:

Misspelling of article titles or authors' names
Misstatement of issue number or date of publication
Missing or garbled text or graphics.

After this, the volunteer will perform a painstaking, word-by-word comparison of the scanned output and the original article. The scanned output must be as faithful as possible to the original, including what may appear to be "incorrect" spelling and format. The volunteer will correct any errors within HTML format. This can be done with a variety of tools. Most current word processing programs will allow editing of HTML, but one may also use a wide choice of sophisticated web editing software packages. Details about HTML processing are provided below.

Footnotes are referenced by Arabic numerals in brackets within the text, and the notes themselves are placed at the end of the article. Hyperlinks for the notes are added when the material is converted into HTML. A template showing format of the finished page is available at t his link.

3.3 Transmission of proofed text

After completing the scanning and proofing, the edited text output should be sent as an email attachment to Tod Roberts (thorsdag@comcast.net). He will acknowledge receipt of the material and notify the volunteer if anything seems amiss. Do not send this as an HTML document unless requested to do so.

3.4 Choice of hardware and software

Volunteers use a variety of hardware and software for scanning, conversion of text into digital format through Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and creation of finished HTML files for posting on the Internet. It is generally best to ask for advice first from the project coordinator, Tod Roberts (thorsdag@comcast.net). He can offer some guidance on this subject from his own experience or can refer volunteers to others who are knowledgeable.

4.0 Final HTML Editing and Posting of Finished Work to the Web

(This task will usually will be done by Tod Roberts.)

4.1 Developing HTML text

The ideal is for a volunteer to handle the whole task involved in converting raw HTML into finished documents that are completely proofed, corrected, and formatted for posting on the Kansas Collection website. We recognize, however, that this may require time or skills and experience the volunteer does not (or not yet) possess. In these cases we arrange for an experienced person to carry out this task.

4.2 Transmission of HTML pages

HTML pages will be transmitted as an email attachment to the person in charge of posting finished material to the Kansas Collection website. All necessary files such as scanned graphics (usually in low-resolution grayscale .JPG format) will be included as attachments with the HTML page.

4.3 Selected HTML Commands

Basic HTML commands can be copied and pasted into the file you are working on and then the variable information can be modified to match the specific needs of the text. Selected commands are presented below and can also be derived from the HTML behind this template page: http://www.kancoll.org/khq/khqfaq/khqtemplate.htm.

TO CREATE THE FILENAME FOR AN ARTICLE

Use this format:
YR_JOURNAL#_authorlastname.htm. For example:

77_3_hurt.htm
This is for the article "Naval Air Stations in Kansas During World War II," by R. Douglas Hurt, in the Autumn 1977 (Vol. 43, No. 3) Kansas Historical Quarterly

INDENT FIVE NON-BREAKING SPACES (AT BEGINNING OF NEW PARAGRAPH)
     
ITALICS
this will be in italics
TO FORM A DASH: use space+hyphen+hyphen+space
BOLDFACE
this will be in boldface
BLOCKQUOTE
<BLOCKQUOTE>this will be indented as a block quote</BLOCKQUOTE>
CENTERED TEXT
<CENTER>this will be centered</CENTER>
FORMAT FOR GRAPHICS REFERENCE
<IMG SRC>= <"../images/YR_Issue#_filename.jpg" ALT="words describing
contents of graphic" WIDTH=xxx HEIGHT=xxx ALIGN=bottom border="1">
STANDARD FORMAT FOR TITLE, AUTHOR, ETC AT TOP OF ARTICLE

BOTTOM OF ARTICLE

<hr>

Many web design software programs will handle these HTML commands for you, but it is a good idea to check the "raw" HTML to make sure the command is stated correctly.

5.0 Current status of posted material

To learn what has been posted and is available for reading online, please go to http://www.kancoll.org/khq/khqnew.htm.

6.0 Tips for proofreading

6.1 Getting started

The single most important task is to make sure that the digitized text precisely matches the original publication. The Kansas Collection materials are often used for research and educational purposes, and viewers depend on us to have transcribed the work exactly. Volunteers should not substitute more modern spelling, capitalization, or punctuation, or change phrases or geographical references which now appear incorrect. Flourishes such as bold and italic which do not appear in the published text should not be included in the electronic text; but if for example a word is italicized in the original publication, the electronic text should also include italics.

For articles from Kansas Historical Quarterly, we do depart from the original in a few respects:

We eliminate the original page breaks in the articles, preferring simply to run continuous text on a single HTML "page."
We move all original bottom-of-page notes to the end of the article, calling them "Endnotes" or simply "NOTES."
We include with all graphics an ALT ("alternative") HTML tag that explains the content of the graphic; this helps our Internet visitors with impaired vision to understand what appears on the page.
We indent all lengthy quoted material using the BLOCKQUOTE format, even when it does not appear that way in the original article.

6.2 Approaches to Proofing and Editing

Most volunteers prefer to make a quick pass-through first to correct obvious errors. Questionable words or formats can be noted with ??? to highlight them for later checking. Notes can be enclosed in *** and set off with blank lines, for example:

***seems to be a whole page missing here at the end of the chapter***

Next, with the original publication in hand, the editor starts doing a direct comparison of the publication with the electronic text, correcting errors as he or she goes along. It is helpful if the editor will note italic and bold text, as well as sections which are to be indented on both margins (such as a paragraph quoted from a speech), with HTML tags. These make things easier for the HTML editor, who will not have to go back looking for italic text and other formatting.

6.3 Word processing techniques

Word processors can really speed things along. Features such as Search and Replace can make it easy to make global formatting changes. Spell-checkers help you find errors you might have overlooked. You can even use macros to quickly insert some HTML tags such as <BLOCKQUOTE>.

You may find it easiest to work with files in the format of your word processor until you have the text in the file exactly how you want it; then save the file in HTML for transmission to KanColl.

If you know some tips for using specific word processors to edit text, feel free to share them! Simply send an email to Tod Roberts (thorsdag@comcast.net). Here is one for users of Word for Windows from Kathleen Roper: "I have many shortcuts in my autotext file.... For example, [the author] has paragraphs with the date at the beginning of each item. By typing 'in' (for indent)and hitting [F3], I get a to end the paragraph I'm working on, the for new para, then the spaces to indent. Then I type 'date' [F3] and I get the formula for the small caps in the month and the 'th' after the day."

At some point, editors should run a spellcheck using their word processor's spell checker. Some prefer to do it at the beginning (if the scanned text is full of gobbledygook, this can get tedious, but if the text is in fairly good shape, this can really speed things along). Some would rather do it after the initial pass-through, at the start of the detailed original-to-scanned-text comparison. Still others prefer to run a spellcheck at the very end of the process.

It is impossible to "overuse" the spellchecking function! It is also important, of course, to proofread the entire text carefully because spellcheckers can miss several errors. For instance, OCR software may substitute a "b" for an "h" so that the text will read "bad" instead of "had" or "be" instead of "he." Another common error is confusing the "8" and the "3." Spellchecking software will not recognize such mistakes as misspellings.

Home | Kansas Historical Quarterly List of Articles, 1931-1977