Praeteritum transcriptum. A Transkribus Tribute: Celebrating our First Five Years as a Cooperative (2019-2024)

Praeteritum transcriptum: A Transkribus Tribute This publication commemorates READ-COOP SCE's first five years (2019-2024), examining how the cooperative structure behind Transkribus has transformed digital humanities and historical scholarship. Beyond celebrating technological achievements in automated text recognition (HTR/OCR), the work analyzes how a stakeholder-owned cooperative model offers a sustainable alternative to commercial platforms for cultural heritage preservation. The tribute documents Transkribus' ecosystem as co-created by diverse stakeholders—software engineers, archivists, historians, and librarians—who serve as contributors, owners, and decision-makers rather than mere users. Through international case studies spanning various languages, scripts, and disciplines, it demonstrates the platform's adaptability to diverse scholarly requirements. Central to the analysis is the productive symbiosis between tool developers and humanities scholars, where pooled user data has enabled the development of comprehensive historical text recognition models. The publication positions Transkribus as not merely a technological solution but as an ethical framework for AI development grounded in collective governance, transparency, and scholarly collaboration, ultimately redefining approaches to our shared written heritage.