Wes Hamrick
Greenhouse Studios Fellow
University of Connecticut
Garrett McComas
Greenhouse Studios Fellow
University of Connecticut
Sourcery, in its conception, is a sharing economy app designed to help researchers access not-yet-digitized documents held within archives and special collections. Developed by Greenhouse Studios at the University of Connecticut with significant support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Sourcery works by connecting researchers in need of scans of remotely located documents to registered users located near the archive where the document is located. When a researcher submits a request, a user retrieves the document, scans the requested pages, and then sends the scans back to the requester through the app. During the COVID-19 crisis, however, many archives remain closed to the public and travel and social interaction is restricted. The need for remote access is greater than ever, but so are the challenges involved in providing it. In an attempt to meet some of these challenges, the Sourcery team has begun working directly with archival institutions to develop an Institutional Version of Sourcery that allows researchers to place scan requests directly with the archive. In addition to providing researchers with a convenient, single-login interface for placing remote requests across multiple institutions, input from archivists will help ensure that the Institutional Version of Sourcery streamlines document scanning and provision workflows and allows for the efficient processing and aggregation of small-dollar transactions on the institution’s behalf.