How to Tag

Tags are primarily used as a method of communicating with other volunteers and capturing additional information about a particular page. Each completed campaign’s tags are also published as part of its bulk dataset on loc.gov.

You can add any tags you feel are appropriate, as long as you follow the Library’s comment policy.

Tag, you're it!

Anyone can tag! You just need to be a registered user. An account also allows you to review and to track your contributions on your profile page.

To add a tag, type a word or words in the Tags box. Separate tags with a comma or click “Add” after each tag. Make sure you click “Save tags” before leaving a page you have tagged.

Ways to tag

Here are some ways you might consider tagging:

  • Since transcriptions will be searchable on loc.gov and as datasets, it’s useful to tag a page with a word that isn’t included in the transcription text.
  • Keep tags short, but use whole words instead of abbreviations. This will make it easier for other people to understand your tags and reuse them.
  • If an important word in a document, such as somebody’s name, is spelled incorrectly, you can add a tag of the correct name.
  • Sometimes writers use nicknames or code words. If you can correctly identify the full name or subject using contextual information, you can add it as a tag.
  • Identify a document’s subject. For example, you may want to tag a page with the name of a battle it describes.
  • Identify an interesting format. You may want to tag the language it’s written in, the type of document, or if it includes unique features such as “shorthand” or “cross-writing”.