For our final Volunteers’ Week post, we wanted to showcase just a few comments we’ve had on the project, from some of the people using the volunteers’ work in their own research. The comments come from academics, the rail industry, family historians and more – a tribute to the interest in the project and its work – and a credit to the resource that the volunteers are building.
These are but a flavour of some of the recent thoughts and experiences of the research users – and we’d always welcome more, so do please let us know what you are using the project data for and what the volunteers’ work means to you!
‘The RWLD team are doing great work making information available on the history of railway accidents.’
‘Congratulations on the development of this amazing resource!’
‘We are proud to support this valuable work from RWLD project.’ (Office of Rail and Road, the industry safety regulator, Feb 2019)
‘I love that project, incredible work they’re doing.’
‘I was thinking again just how much we need an Australasian equivalent of your project!’
‘I love these reports! Provides oodles of information that would otherwise be lost in a fog of technological progress or the passage of time.’
‘Amazing! Just shows how much appetite there is for doing hands-on history when we involve people in making history.’
‘Such a fabulous project to make these records more accessible & easier to search & analyse. They hold real value both at an individual level & in aggregate. The resulting database will be so much more than the sum of its parts.’
‘So much of my research comes from the work of volunteers: thank you for all you do!’
‘important work – well done all :)’
‘I have been inspired to keep up my own work every time I see how much your project is producing!’
‘A big thank you to your volunteers. Without all of your hard work genealogy would be a lot poorer.’
As you can see, some really amazing comments and appreciation there, and we’re pleased that we’ve had plenty more like this. We do pass this on to the volunteers, and it provides them with a boost, so don’t be shy about showing your appreciation!
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Hopefully the series of blog posts we’ve put together for Volunteers’ Week has given you a bit more insight into the role of the project volunteers and the great work they’re doing – as well as the ways it’s appreciated. We’d like to end by urging everyone associated with the project to keep up the good work and by saying the most important thing to our volunteers: thank you!
The previous Volunteers’ Week post is available here.