FAQ
What should I do if there’s an error on the postcard?
Everyone makes mistakes, and postcard senders throughout history are no exception. Please transcribe/tag everything as written on the postcard, even if it’s a typo or seems like a mistake. If there’s some kind of serious issue and you have further questions, add it to the talk board when you submit.
Is there a way to go back and edit my submission if I made a mistake?
If you are still working on a postcard but have gone on to the next step, you can go back and edit by hitting the “back” button to the left of the “next” button. Once you’ve hit “done” you can’t edit the card again, but don’t worry about it — the Newberry staff reviews submissions before they are added to the collection.
What should I do if the postcard is offensive?
The Newberry’s postcard collections are held for research value and reflect the society in which they were produced. Unfortunately, that means some contain language and imagery that reflect racism, sexism, and other prejudices. When transcribing, enter offensive text as it appears on the card. When classifying the postcard’s subjects, you can indicate that the postcard contains an offensive stereotype. For more information, please see the Newberry’s full statement on potentially offensive materials and descriptions.
Why can I select some race and gender categories but not others?
The purpose of this project is not just to describe what's on a postcard, but to provide useful categories for researchers. For example, we want to classify images of African Americans on postcards so that people studying images of Black people from the early 20th century will easily be able to find them in our digital collections. Since postcards of white people are the overwhelming majority in the currently featured collections, and unlikely to be a useful research category, we are not asking people to tag them at this time.
Where are my contributions going?
Our team will clean up all of the contributed data and integrate them into the metadata of our digital collections. That will be saved with those postcards in perpetuity, making them easier to search for and access forever!
Can I re-use a postcard image from this site, or from your digital collections?
Yes! We encourage re-use of these images — no need to request our permission; see the Newberry’s Open Access Policy for more information. And while it’s not required, we would appreciate it if you included the credit “From the Newberry Library” and linked back to the site.
