Introduction
Recogito is an online tool that lets users collaboratively annotate images and text. Digital humanities students can utilize it to add layers of information to these images or texts. This includes identifying and mapping places, people, and events within certain documents. People who use Recogito can work together to identify key information and connect it to online databases for a more holistic, interactive understanding of specific texts. For example, digital humanities students can analyze literary works using this tool by adding interactive annotations that connect information or mark places. This tutorial demonstrates the basic techniques for using this tool.
Tutorial Walkthrough on Basic Annotations
Step 1: You will start on the homepage. Click on the big, blue button in the top left corner titled “New.” From here, you can upload a file of your choosing. Note: files must be in .txt format. If you have a PDF or another document format, make sure to convert it to a .txt file.
Step 2: To begin annotating your text, select and highlight a specific word or phrase with your mouse. You will see an assortment of options pop up after highlighting any given text. Because Elena is the name of a person, you can select the person button, and it will mark her as a person throughout the rest of the text.
Step 3: The same applies to a location. The text says that Elena grew up in New Mexico. You can highlight New Mexico and select the place button. In most scenarios, the tool will automatically place the location on the map. However, you can also manually view the map and place a marker at the location of the given text. Now, when you click on your annotation, the designated information will appear in a pop-up.
Step 4: Next, you can denote a relationship between any two words or phrases throughout the text. Start by clicking on the “relations” button on the top, to the right of the” annotations mode” label. Then click on one word/phrase and connect it to another word/phrase. This will produce an arrow, connecting the two. From there, you can title the tag, indicating what the relationship between the two words/phrases is. In the example below, Elena is connected to New Mexico, and the tag is Place of Birth.
Step 5: Lastly, once you are done with your annotations, you can download your final product in a variety of ways. Click the download options button on the top panel. You can download your annotations into a CSV or RDF file. There are similar options for places, relations, etc.
Further Resources
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Dylan, this tool is super cool, and I really see how useful it can be in a variety of fields. It definitely solves many of the problems of old-fashioned pen and paper annotations, and provides an entire organizational system that I think is super helpful. I can see this as particularly useful in educational applications of DH, as it seems like a great tool for both students and teachers.