The interdisciplinary research project Chronicling Novelty. New Knowledge in the Netherlands,1500-1850 examines how new knowledge was disseminated among a wider audience of non-expertsin the early... Show moreThe interdisciplinary research project Chronicling Novelty. New Knowledge in the Netherlands,1500-1850 examines how new knowledge was disseminated among a wider audience of non-expertsin the early modern Netherlands based on a source corpus of over 200 Dutch-language localchronicles. Most of this corpus, a total of over 35,000 scans of manuscripts collected from Dutchand Belgian archives, have been transcribed and annotated with the help of volunteers. To takefull advantage of the potential time, knowledge and skills of volunteers, a considerable investmentis needed on the part of researchers. A survey conducted among our volunteers showed that mostof them considered information, instruction, feedback, and appreciation much more importantthan a material reward. Furthermore, we found that differentiation between volunteers is important.Some people like to perform relatively simple tasks, while others want to be more activelyinvolved and contribute their expertise and ideas. Closer contact with researchers can reveal thisenthusiasm as well as the knowledge and experience people have, which can be used. More communication, involvement and ownership of certain tasks is then desirable. Own initiatives andprojects could emerge from this. The biggest bottleneck for citizen science is the available timeand resources of researchers. Current funding instruments for researchers do not meet this need. Show less