Sourcery @ SHEAR

Sourcery has been very busy this year traveling to various historian and archivist conferences to spread the word about how we can help folks conducting archival research. This past weekend we were at the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) conference held in Philadelphia, PA!  

At these conferences, the Sourcery team generally rents a booth space out of the exhibit hall and we set up a table filled with informational literature and swag to hand out to interested conferences attendees. We answer questions that range from more general (“what is Sourcery again?”) to the uber specific (“my research topic is xyz, how can Sourcery help me?”) as well as provide updates to long-time and new followers of the project.  

These conferences are a great way for us to gauge common questions, misconceptions, and even get ideas from researchers who are active in the field while also introducing Sourcery to new users who might need a way to access undigitized archival materials or who might be in need of a way to make a little extra money.  

This was our second time exhibiting at the SHEAR conference, we were also in attendance in 2024, and it was certainly a success! We spoke to almost 20 people over the two days the exhibit hall was open, about the same as when we exhibited there back in 2024. I like to keep a running spreadsheet of all of the questions asked while at these conferences, as I find the data interesting for tracking trends and for seeing what topics are more popular at difference conferences (for example, some conferences are far more interested in me and my background but others are more interested in asking about hot topic issues, like about Sourcery’s plans for AI integrations). Now that we’ve been exhibiting at conferences for a few years, we have some really fun data to work with and it helps us quite a bit when developing user support materials like our FAQ page and what information to include on information handouts.  

At this conference, attendees mostly asked clarifying questions about Sourcery and how it works under the new peer-to-peer model. Remember that the last time we exhibited at SHEAR, way back in 2024, Sourcery was still institutional. Questions at most conferences this year have largely centered around this change, with questions focused around how Sourcerers are affiliated with institutions and how Sourcery is planning to integrate institutional accounts (more on this soon…).  

All-in-all I had a great time at SHEAR and we hope to continue attending in the future! Our next conference will be the big AASLH/NCPH conference with Digital Scholar this fall. We hope to see you there!