This guide provides information to syndicate coordinators on how to use the corrections systems to handle corrections to the FreeBMD entries that have been transcribed for their syndicate. Corrections are created when a person (the "requester") searching the FreeBMD database finds that a transcription does not correspond to what is in the GRO Index (that is, normally, the scan of the index page). There is a separate Guide for Transcribers that describes the default method of doing corrections although syndicates may have their own guides.
Ownership
When a correction request is received, FreeBMD will assign an owner to the correction. In most cases this will be the transcriber of the entry but it may be the syndicate for whom the entry was transcribed as described below. Ownership of a correction may be changed, for example a syndicate may allocate a correction to any transcriber in the syndicate.
Syndicate Owned Corrections
Corrections to entries transcribed for the syndicate can become owned by the syndicate (rather than the transcriber) in a number of ways:
the coordinator sets "Send corrections to above..." in Maintain Syndicate to "Always" ("above" refers to the syndicate contact)
the transcriber opts not to handle corrections (sets "Accept Corrections" to "No" in the Modify Your Submitter Details option of File Management)
the transcriber has been marked as NotActive
the transcriber has been marked as "Not contactable" (a setting based on historical data from the manual corrections system)
the transcriber marks a correction to indicate it cannot be done (e.g. if the file no longer exists)
The ownership of syndicate owned corrections be can transferred to transcribers in the syndicate. This can therefore be used to review corrections before they are passed on to the original transcriber (but please see Reviewing Corrections for an alternative to this).
Syndicate owned corrections are identified by having an owner of "synd:syndicatename, so to view syndicate owned corrections enter this in the Owner box of the search form.
Please note that where a transcriber belongs to multiple syndicate each syndicate can separately control and take ownership of entries transcribed for the syndicate.
Correction Notifications
Transcribers are notified by email that there are corrections waiting for them to do (that is there are corrections for which they are the owner). This email contains a link to a list of waiting corrections and clicking on one of these corrections takes you to a page that contains details of the correction. Notifications are also sent to the syndicate contact concerning both corrections owned by the syndicate and outstanding corrections owned by syndicate members. The syndicate contact can be set in Maintain Syndicate but it defaults to the coordinator (or to one of the coordinators of there is more than one).
Coordinator Login
Using the corrections system requires a login using the normal userid and password. When coordinators login they have the option of logging in as an individual or as a coordinator of a syndicate. Using an individual login, the information available is that applicable to the userid, so, for example, seeing corrections owned by the userid. Using a coordinator login, the information available is that applicable to the syndicate, for example, the corrections owned by the syndicate or the corrections being done by members of the syndicate.
For transcribers marked as NotActive, the transcriber themselves cannot login, but the coordinator of a syndicate can login and amend the files of the transcriber. This is done using transcriber:coordinator as the userid for the login to File Management, where transcriber is the userid of the transcriber and coordinator is the userid of the coordinator. The password used is that of the coordinator. If a transcriber has set their details to "Not accept corrections" coordinators can also do this coordinator login to access their files but they must first set this access as available for their syndicate. To do this go to MaintainSynd and check the box "Amend not accept corrections" but note that by doing this coordinators are signifying they will use this facility for transcribers who accept such access. Once a file has been amended by the coordinator that file can only be edited in-situ by (either the transcriber or the coordinator), that is a new file cannot be uploaded to replace the existing file.
Syndicates can nominate some of their members to be Amenders and these
members will then have the same privileges as co-ordinators of the syndicate
as far as the facilities described in the preceding paragraph are concerned. See the syndicate
maintenance page for the syndicate to set a member
to be an Amender. Coordinators can allocate syndicate corrections to members who are Amenders and because they are Amenders they will be able to amend the files concerned.
Processing Corrections
The main interface to the corrections system is through Show Corrections which provides a number of facilities:
the ability to list corrections that fall into particular criteria, for example, date submitted, ownership, etc.
the ability to view the details of individual corrections and take action on them
the ability to download a list of corrections and to upload them again with actions defined
Please note that when the list of corrections is displayed as a result of a notification, only the notified corrections are displayed and the ability to change the listing criteria is "hidden" behind a button. This is done in order to avoid overwelming transcribers with too much information.
Please also note that when viewing corrections (both the list and the details), help is often available by hovering the mouse over an item.
Reviewing Corrections
The corrections process provides a step for reviewing the corrections that have been done,
before the response email is sent to the person requesting the correction. After the person
doing the correction has completed it (as Completed or Rejected) the correction goes into the
Review state with the syndicate as the owner. The syndicate can then review the correction
and determine whether it should be finalised (and the email sent) or returned to the
transcriber. Notifications and alerts for items in the Review state are provided.
It is anticipated that syndicates might want to review how well syndicate members are handling
corrections, especially if they are new to transcribing. Once a syndicate has confidence in
a member they can allow them to do corrections without review. This, then, provides a means
to review how corrections are done, and to determine the need to do a review, without
having to review every correction and is therefore considered to be more cost effective than the syndicate evaluating every correction before passing it to the transcriber.
Configuring the Corrections System
There are a number of configuration options open to coordinators and accessed via Maintain Syndicate:
the syndicate contact (who receives notifications) is configurable from the top level
the option to make the syndicate the owner of all corrections for entries transcribed for the syndicate is configurable from the top level
at the top level there is a link to alter more detailed configuration options
one of the configuration options allows the coordinator to change the email sent to transcribers but it is recommended that any amendements are done by copying the text, editing it in an editor and pasting it back again. The following variables can be used in the text of the email and these will be replaced by the appropriate values when the email is generated:
contact
The syndicate contact for corrections issues (email address)
defaultContact
The FreeBMD contact for corrections issues (email address)
noOfCorrections
The number of corrections being notified (used in the default text to toggle singular/plural grammar)
guide
A link (URL) to the Transcriber Corrections Guide
However it must be appreciated that if a custom email is created it will not reflect any changes in the default text and there is also no mechanism to inform syndicate coordinators that the default text has changed.
Controlling Notifications
In order to avoid transcribers being inundated with a lot of emails about corrections FreeBMD provides a number of ways to manage to way notification are sent. Firstly, corrections can be batched up so that corrections are not notified immediately but only when a certain number have arrived or a certain period passes. Secondly, the sending of notifications can be limited to a specific number over a certain period.
Bulk changes
Coordinators can make bulk changes to corrections for their syndicate by using the ability to upload the changes as a spreadsheet. The expected method of using this is to download the list of corrections as a spreadsheet, amend this sheet with the changes required and then upload the resultant spreadsheet. For example, all the changes for a particular transcriber can be reallocated to the syndicate in this way. Please see here for further details.
Amending Correction Data
From time to time it may be necessary to amend the data about a correction, for example if the comment associated with a rejection needs changing (although using the review facility would also enable this to be done). If such a situation arises please email explaining what needs to happen. The most common method of doing this will be for the correction to be returned to a previous state (e.g. Assigned) so that it can be altered. Obviously such actions will not necessarily undo what has happened, for example if a response has been sent to the submitter of the correction.
Transcribers' Correction Guide
A guide to the Corrections System oriented to transcribers is available here. A link to this is given in the default notification email but this can be changed on a per syndicate basis by changing the configuration variable CorrectionsGuideTranscriberLink (by clicking on Correction Configuration in Maintain Syndicate).
Membership of Multiple Syndicates
A small number of transcribers are members of multiple syndicates. Where this means that transcribers have transcribed entries for multiple syndicates this provides interesting complications to the corrections process. Firstly, each syndicate can separately configure what happens to corrections for their syndicate. This means that the transcriber could find corrections handled differently depending on which syndicate they were transcribed for. Secondly, each syndicate can define different defaults for notifications and in this case the least restrictive is taken as the default for the user. Of course, if the user explicity sets the notification parameters then those values are used (for all syndicates).
A complication that affects transcribers is that where syndicates have customised the notification email, transcribers may received separate emails for corrections that apply to files transcribed for different syndicates.