Sourcery Anywhere

Any archive, any time.

Today the Sourcery team is extremely excited to announce the launch of something we have been working toward for many months: Sourcery Anywhere.

Until now, requests for document scans through Sourcery were limited to a select number of testing partners, including UConn’s own Archives and Special Collections, the Hartford History Center at the Hartford Public Library, the Northeastern University Archives, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. These and other early adopters have helped us develop and streamline the document fulfillment workflow and user interface so that it works for the hardworking archivists who assist researchers in accessing the documents they request. Now, with their help, we are ready to open Sourcery to requests at any collecting institution in the United States.

Here’s how it works. Simply login to your Sourcery account, find the repository where your desired document is located in our list of partners, or — if you don’t see it listed — type its name and location in the text box. Add your citation information, hit submit, and Sourcery will facilitate your request. Your documents will appear in your Sourcery account as soon as the archivists at the relevant institution can deliver them. If the archivists have any questions, they will contact you through Sourcery’s built-in messaging feature or email you at the address you provided upon registration. Sourcery will keep a permanent record of your requests, across all the archives you use, including information about their status, any back and forth with the archivists, and the delivered document scans. No more searching through email for correspondence with archivists at multiple institutions to see if you’ve received a response. No more hunting around the archive’s help pages for request forms. Just all your research requests, from anywhere, all in one place.

We’re eager to get as many requests from as many researchers as possible in these early days, so please give it a whirl. You can access Sourcery either via your web browser at sourceryapp.org or by downloading our Android app from the Google Play Store (iOS is coming soon!)

Please also send us any feedback you have. Sourcery is an open-source, not-for-profit, community-designed project, and we need to hear from you to make it work.

If you’re spending this winter break on a research project, think Sourcery.