Background
Indexing is a two-step process:
- Look at the digital image of a historical document.
- Enter the information that it contains into a searchable database.
In the past, human volunteers did all of the indexing tasks. Indexing a particular collection of historical records could take months or years to complete.
Using computers to help with indexing
Today, artificial intelligence and other handwriting recognition technologies can create a preliminary index for a particular project or collection. A volunteer then reviews the information and corrects any errors.
We call the process “computer-assisted indexing,” or CAI. CAI is much faster than indexing performed entirely by humans and drastically decreases the amount of time required before a collection of documents becomes searchable.