Crowdsourced User Text Correction allows members of the public to help improve the searchability of this collection by correcting errors in the text of the digitized newspapers. Saving these corrections to the collection database improves the accuracy of the text, which enables better search results and a richer experience for all users.

When a newspaper or other text document is prepared for display online, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software is used to generate searchable text. On some occasions, the text can be difficult for the software to accurately register - for example, a torn or water damaged document may have some illegible or missing sections. Likewise, small fonts, out of focus scans and fading can all result in OCR text that is not 100% accurate.

Text correction allows Virginia Chronicle users to assist in improving the searchability of the newspapers by correcting errors in the text of the digitized newspapers.

We welcome new contributors to our User Text Correction community. Anyone can participate as long as they have created an account and logged in.

OCR text corrections are saved to the database and will improve the service for all users by increasing the accuracy of search results.

There are two ways you can begin to correct text. From the document viewer:

• Select the article or page you want to correct. This will display the text in the left pane of the document viewer. Click on the "Correct this text" link that appears above this text.
• Right-click on the article or page image and select "Correct article text" or "Correct page text" from the options pop-up window.

The text correction interface is split into two parts: the right side shows the page images that make up the document, and the left side is used for editing the lines of text.

When you move your mouse over the page images in the right pane, the blocks making up the pages will highlight. You can scroll this view by dragging with the mouse, or zoom in/out using the buttons above the viewer. Clicking a highlighted block will select it and load a form for editing that block into the left pane.

Correct the text line by line. A red box is displayed in the right pane to help you determine what text should be included in the line. Once you have finished correcting text, click "Save". The changes you make will take effect immediately.

You can then make further corrections to the same block, move onto the next block by clicking the "Save & next" or "Next" button, select another block in the right pane, or exit the text correction view by clicking the "Return to viewing mode" link.

Clicking "Save & exit" instead of "Save" will save the changes and then return you to the normal viewing mode automatically.

Hint: Many web browsers include spell checking functionality and this can assist with your text correction by identifying misspelt words. If your web browser does not have this functionality, it's likely there is a spell checking add-on available (see your web browser's help for information on how to install add-ons).

For recommendations about topics such as punctuation, misspellings and illegible text, see General guidelines for text correction.