Workshop Challenging the Leviathan of individual death records (1800-1950). A walk-in-clinic on automatic transcription

This workshop is especially designed for the COST Action – The Great Leap national teams who are at an early stage of collecting individual death certificates (1800–1950) and are facing an overwhelming volume of information. The goal of this workshop is to assist them in finding solutions so that they can pursue the automatic transcription of records. In any case, students or academics who simply want to learn more about the processes of automatic transcription of records are welcome, also when they are not (yet) part of GREATLEAP.

We aim to leverage the extensive experience gained by countries that have successfully adopted automatic transcription of records (e.g. Belgium, Catalunya, Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc). We believe that by pooling efforts and accumulated experience in software development and its finetuning, we can offer faster, more economical, and reliable solutions to those new to these processes. While no magical solutions are promised, we are confident that this meeting will serve as an effective testing ground.

We will bring together a committee of experts that in anticipation will analyze the applications and collectively propose potential directions for the cases presented. Another objective of the workshop will be the creation of a preliminary document discussing best practices for automatic transcription of individual-level death certificates.

The workshop is fundamentally organized into three parts. The first day includes presentations by various specialists, including computer scientists, showcasing relevant case studies. It will also include a tutorial session on preparing and editing digital images for later digital recognition. The second day includes the presentation of concrete questions from participants (whether they are or not members of the Cost network), followed by expert feedback and an extended discussion period. The workshop will conclude with a round table discussion on standards and best practices that can help implement automatic document recognition projects

Requirements:
Please briefly describe the dataset (300-400 words) you wish to develop or present during the meeting. Provide a detailed description of any previous attempts to process handwritten images and their respective results, if applicable. Please use the following link to register before xxxx:

Fee
€80 to be paid to Casa de Sarmento (University of Minho). Participants who are invited through GREATLEAP can use part of their daily allowance to cover the fee.

Scientific Committee

• Antero Ferreira (Casa de Sarmento, Portugal)
• Ciara Breathnach (University of Limerick, Ireland)
• Diego Ramiro Farinhas (CSIC, Madrid)
• Paulo Teodoro de Matos (ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon)
• Tiziana Margaria (University of Limerick, Ireland)