Quite a few institutions are “crowdsourcing” historical documents so that the public can help transcribe them – thereby making them searchable and readable.

You can see a list of them at The Best Sites Where Students Can Transcribe Historical Texts.

Now, the Boston Library is “getting into the act” by inviting the public’s help in transcribing “Antislavery Manuscripts” – correspondence between antislavery activists int he 19th Century.

I’m adding it to that “Best” list.