[BCMA] OCR for international phonetic alphabet

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

Hi Ava,

We have come across about 15 different spellings for Musqueam/xʷməθkʷəy̓əm. We just use an authority record database to keep track which is tied to all our descriptions so that if someone searches the older orthographies then they won't be missing anything.  Most archival databases will accommodate this in a 'use for' type term. I'm not sure about the software common for museum collections.

I have heard that ABBYY finereader can be trained to OCR special characters but we havn't tried it out yet.

Elizabeth





hay čxʷ q̓ə,

Elizabeth McManus

Senior Archivist



xʷməθkʷəy̓əm

Musqueam First Nation

6735 Salish Drive

Vancouver, BC V6N 4C4

Phone: 604-269-3414

emcmanus at musqueam.bc.ca<mailto:emcmanus at musqueam.bc.ca>



________________________________
From: Listserv <listserv-bounces at lists.museum.bc.ca> on behalf of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv <listserv at lists.museum.bc.ca>
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2025 4:07 PM
To: listserv at lists.museum.bc.ca <listserv at lists.museum.bc.ca>
Subject: [BCMA] OCR for international phonetic alphabet


Hello,



At the qathet Museum and Archives we’re digitizing some text records that have some creative/historic spellings or spellings similar to IPA. For example, Sliammon is written Slaiäman. Has anyone had any experience making IPA characters searchable with OCR.



This also had me thinking – how do different archives deal with multiple spellings of historic place names? Do you create a research aid for researchers or make notes to accompany each archival record? I am thinking for example, of someone who wants to research Tla’amin history – they might have results by keyword searching Tla’amin, Sliammon, Slaiäman, or other variations.



Curious to hear about different methods,





Ava Hansen

Museum Manager

qathet Museum & Archives

4790 Marine Avenue

PO Box 42 Powell River, BC, V8A 4Z5

(604) 485-2222  www.qathetmuseum.ca<http://www.qathetmuseum.ca/>

[cid:image001.png at 01D777F9.08D0E970]



The qathet Museum & Archives is located on the traditional territory of the Tla’amin Nation.




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20250429/c02afe82/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 5095 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20250429/c02afe82/attachment.png>