Pella Community Memory Database Volunteers

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Pella Community Memory Database



So you want to volunteer on the project?

We'd love to have you on board! 

There are two main categories of volunteers: 

  1. Crowdsourcing or "work-from-home" volunteers
  2. On-site volunteers

If you wish to be a Crowdsourcing (work-from-home) volunteer, here's what you need to do:

  1. If you have not already registered as a volunteer, fill out our volunteer registration,
    We will e-mail you back with a volunteer ID number.
  2. Have access to a computer with an Internet connection.  
    We recommend the Chrome or Firefox web browsers for best results.  
  3. Visit the Crowdsourcing page to get started!

If you wish to be an On-site volunteer, do the following:

  1. Review our volunteer policy (PDF).
  2. Fill out, sign, and return a volunteer application (PDF).  You may do this by dropping your application off at the desk, sending it to us via US Postal Service mail, or by sending it as an e-mail attachment to cbrown@cityofpella.com
  3. When we have received and reviewed your application, we will contact you to set up a time for volunteer orientation.


What are some of the projects I might be working on?


Crowdsourcing volunteers:

  • Improve the given description of items in the database (correct names, enhance summaries, etc.)
  • Identify unidentified photographs and documents (identify people, places and things where they are currently unidentified).
  • Transcribing documents.  Computers cannot read hand-written documents, so by typing out these documents, the computer is able to search them when someone enters a search in the Database.
  • Translating documents.  If you know Dutch, we want to work with you!  Pick a document written in Dutch, and write the English translation!  Consider providing a Dutch transcription of the document at the same time so it can be searched in both languages.

On-site volunteers:

  • Identifying unidentified photographs prior to them being digitized.  This improves the speed and accuracy at which items are entered.
  • Scanning documents and photographs.  We have projects, or you may work with us to provide your own historical materials.  Time slots are limited for this task.

Can I provide my own scanned files?

Not at the current time. Due to standardization issues, you must provide the original, primary-source documents and the library will assist you in digitizing them using our file formats.


Institute of Museum and Library Services Logo

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant Number LG-27-19-0186-19.

Este proyecto ha sido posible en parte por el Instituto de Servicios de Museos y Bibliotecas concesión número LG-27-19-0186-19.