The arrival of handwriting recognition technologies offers new possibilities for research in heritage studies. However, it is now necessary to reflect on the experiences and the practices developed by research teams. Our use of the Transkribus platform since 2018 has led us to search for the most significant ways to improve the performance of our handwritten text recognition (HTR) models which are made to transcribe French handwriting dating from the 17th century. This article therefore reports on the impacts of creating transcribing protocols, using the language model at full scale and determining the best way to use base models in order to help increase the performance of HTR models. Combining all of these elements can indeed increase the performance of a single model by more than 20% (reaching a Character Error Rate below 5%). This article also discusses some challenges regarding the collaborative nature of HTR platforms such as Transkribus and the way researchers can share their data generated in the process of creating or training handwritten text recognition models.

Coronavirus pandemic has made many things evident to Canadian exporters, including the fact that investing in automation and technology is the future of exporting. President and chief executive officer of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), Dennis Darby says, firms that invested in automation are now availing benefits wherein those that didn't are trying to catch up. "The first group is now saying that we need more new technology to meet demand while the other is saying that it's a time to re-think operations." He adds, "With physical distancing and worker absenteeism two key challenges amid COVID-19 pandemic, many Canadian exporters find themselves in the latter category." There's no surprise given the historical lack of investment in automation.