Lexington’s African American Heritage Walking Tour
Join us for an on-demand walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American heritage sites.
Join us for an on-demand walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American heritage sites.
Explore topics related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) in this space for youth, grades 3-12.
Learn how the Lexington Public Library Foundation empowers change within our library system.
Learn or develop a personal or professional skill with LinkedIn Learning classes, available for free with your library card.
Did you know physical materials renew automatically if they don’t have a waiting list? Check your account online to see the status of your items.
Help us make digital archives searchable, from anywhere.
When you type a keyword into the search bar in our digital archives, many of the archives’ handwritten documents do not appear in search results. This happens because several handwritten documents still need a transcription, or a typewritten version of their contents, to be searchable.
How can you help?
Human transcription, though a time-consuming process, is more accurate than machine transcription, especially for handwritten documents. Through our Community Transcription Project, volunteers can transcribe important handwritten materials from throughout Lexington and Kentucky history, making them searchable and more easily accessible for the residents of Fayette County and for researchers looking for more information on their Kentucky ancestors.
Do volunteers have to come into the library to help?
Volunteers do not have to come into the library to transcribe materials — only a computer and reliable internet connection are needed.
Click here to learn how to earn volunteer hours through the LPL Community Transcription Project.
Don’t need to record your volunteer hours? Click here to start transcribing.
In most cases, you’ll copy exactly what is written on the page in the transcription form. You can learn more about how to do that in our transcription conventions.
Names should be transcribed as written, but this Wiktionary entry provides some common abbreviations for names used in handwritten historical documents.
Steps to Record Your Hours:
Yes! You can leave a comment on the item page to ask a question and someone will get back to you ASAP.
You can mark a page as "Needs Review" when the entire page has been transcribed.