Skip to main content
state library of queensland
Blog
News

Pitch In! and become a digital volunteer at SLQ

By Margaret Warren | 20 March 2014

Featured image for blog post 1187413

Call to action troops! Have you ever wondered how Queenslanders responded to the conditions of The Great War? How they reacted to news from the frontline, or how it changed their lives? Newspaper articles from the war years provide a fantastic insight to the experiences of many Queenslanders. At the time, before the digital revolution, newspapers were the main form of communication to reach a mass audience and via Pitch In! digital volunteers are able to discover this history themselves as well as make it an available resource for others. How, you ask? Well read on.

Trove provides over 10 million digitised newspaper pages that have been electronically transcribed. However, due to the quality of the original newspapers or the small text, sometimes the electronic translation process isn’t 100% accurate.

Pitch In! provides the opportunity for digital volunteers to text correct a variety of newspaper articles about Queensland experiences of World War 1. This makes the articles easier to search and a more valuable resource for everyone.
There are several categories to choose from, such as Women and the War, POWs and Stories from the front lines.
It’s as easy as visiting the Pitch In! page on the SLQ website, choosing ‘Text Correct Newspapers in Trove’ and away you go! You don’t need a Trove account to Pitch In! but it’s a better experience if you do and very easy to create one.

One article that stands out is from The Queenslander in February 1918 about a parliament meeting before an upcoming State election, where the author writes about equal wages for men and women in the same industry, claiming women’s efforts in joining the workforce during the war has proved this is a valid platform.

“One resolution which the women of Queensland will ponder deeply during the forthcoming election was that the plank "equal pay for males and females in the same industry" shall be added to the fighting platform. The resolution is either a direct blow at the employment of women, or it foretokens the slowing down of male employees to the speed of women workers. The report of a recent commission showed that generally speaking women are not capable of turning out or doing so much work as men. The war, however, must have the effect —it is one of the sacrifices which the nation is called upon to make —that more and more women will have to enter the industrial sphere as workers. With high wages ruling for males how will our women be affected if they have to seek employment at the same rates?”

It is both an excellent example of Queensland women’s experiences towards the conclusion of World War 1 and how although nearly 100 years have passed, this issue remains in our contemporary world.
Interesting articles like this one are waiting for you to cast your eye over and make them easier to search, while enjoying yourself at the same time.
We’d like to hear all about your discoveries and hard work. You can email us at discovery@slq.qld.gov.au, share on SLQ’s Facebook page, or start a conversation on Twitter by using this hashtag: #pitchinslq

Jacinta Sutton, Discovery Services

Comments

Your email address will not be published.

We welcome relevant, respectful comments.

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
We also welcome direct feedback via Contact Us.
You may also want to ask our librarians.