Crowd Sourced Indexing: Instructions

CSI: Crowd Sourced Indexing has been written to be used as simply as possible.

  1. Sign Up
    Use the Sign Up page to sign up to use the site. Provide the information requested and you can begin indexing immediately. Each account must have a unique username and a unique email address, different from all other accounts.
  2. Groups
    You must choose a Group to begin indexing. Choose "Independent Indexers" if you are not part of another Group listed. Presently, you cannot change your Group, but that feature will be added in the future.
  3. Log In
    You must be logged in to index, so use the Login every future time you visit the site.
  4. My Account
    Find your information on the pages below this menu.
  5. My Account Information
    This is an important page. You will find some of your personal information, provided when you logged in. You may choose your Time Zone, to see some information converted to your local timezone.
    This is also where you choose a Project. You cannot index until you've chosen a Project to work on. You may change to another Project on this page at any time.
  6. Current Project
    Found on the My Account Information Page, you will be presented with a list of Projects available to you. You may only participate in Projects for your Group or those that are marked Public.
  7. My Stats
    This page will show you some details about the Projects in which you have participated.
  8. Change Password
    You may change your password from the one you originally set.
  9. View Project
    From the listing on the CSI home page and the My Account page, you can view more information about each Project, including seeing sample images and reading the indexing instructions.
  10. Start Indexing
    This page will provide information about the Project along with the Project Instructions and some general Instructions from CSI. To index pages, select the button at the bottom.
  11. Indexing
    This is where all the action takes place.
    • Across the top are several buttons.
    • Release Image can be used if you don't want to index an image you have loaded or you suddenly don't have time. You will not be given the same image again when you index another.
    • Report a Problem should be used to report if an image has nothing to index or if it's too blurry to read. You may also explain any other issues, including if you have received a page with no dates so that you cannot index all of the fields requested. There are checkboxes to return to the image to continue indexing or to reject the image and return it to the queue for someone else to index, if the Problem you Report does not prevent indexing.
    • Instructions will show you the specific instructions for the Project.
    • Submit Transcriptions button is at the top of the page. When you have finished indexing the page, click the button to send in your transcriptions. Sorry, partial indexing is not yet available, so you'll have to do the entire page.
    • Additionally, there are buttons on the canvas along with the image.
    • Zoom In, Zoom Out, Zoom to 100% are all for zooming the image. Zoom In is shown as (plus sign), Zoom Out is (minus sign), and Zoom to 100% says "100%". You may also use your mousewheel for zooming, as well as dragging the image to view other parts of it.
    • Reset Image is shown as and will return the image settings to how the page loaded.
    • Rotate Image is shown as and will turn the image 90 degrees clockwise. Be aware that the dragging becomes off-kilter when the image is rotated.
    • View Previous Image and View Next Image will show you the two surrounding images, which may assist with your indexing. Each button only shows the one image and the other cannot be used to return to the image for indexing. Use the Reset button to return to the image you're indexing.
    • Toggle Guideline is shown as and provides a red line through the center of the canvas to assist your indexing. The button will toggle the line on and off.
    • Indexing happens in the fields below the image. The project administrator has decided which fields they want indexed. Please read their instructions before beginning. The fields will often scroll off to the right of the screen. You can easily move between the fields using your Tab key. If you require more lines for input, there is a button at the bottom left to Add Another Row. You may hit that as many times as needed. Do not worry about any extra blank lines, or even any blank lines in the middle of your indexing. When you are finished, you Submit Transcriptions using the button at the bottom or at the top. Upon completion of the page, you will be shown a button to choose to index another page in the same Project.
  12. Admin Menu
    Project Admins have their own area of the web site to view their Projects, view details of the transcriptions, see who has been indexing, make some changes, and create new Projects. Additional instructions are available to Admins in their part of the web site. To become a Project Admin, ask using the Suggestion Box.