Aalst Calls for Volunteers to Help Index 42,000 Historical City Council Reports

Aalst (Eurotoday): Aalst seeks volunteers to index over 42,000 scanned city council reports, enhancing public access to historical records. No experience is required, approximately 50 volunteers have joined the effort.

The city of Aalst has a large collection of over 42,000 scanned reports from city council and board of aldermen meetings, including records from smaller areas. These documents contain historical information about the city’s decisions and policies. To make this information more accessible, Aalst plans to put these scans online. However, they need to create a detailed index with keywords to help people easily find specific topics, events, or decisions within the reports.

How can people help Aalst index 42,000 historical city council reports?

To create the index, the city is looking for volunteers to help review the scanned reports. This effort will help develop a useful search tool for researchers, historians, and the public. It has been said that by volunteering, people can help preserve Aalst’s history and make it easier for future generations to access it. This project offers an opportunity for anyone interested in local history or government records to make a positive impact.

The city says that no experience is needed, just a passion for history, as they seek volunteers to help with documents from the 18th century in French and Dutch. Volunteers will only need to note details like the language, document type, meeting date, and agenda titles, making it easier to find specific meetings. This allows people to access reports from home without damaging the original documents. So far, about 50 volunteers have signed up to help with this work through a crowdsourcing website, choosing their hours.


Comments

One response to “Aalst Calls for Volunteers to Help Index 42,000 Historical City Council Reports”

  1. Third Moon Avatar

    Oh great, because who wouldn’t want to spend their weekends hunched over 18th-century documents, channeling their inner historian? 🤔 Just what the world needs—more volunteers indexing historical reports instead of living their lives! 🥱

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Last News

L’Europe souhaite se libérer de sa dépendance à Palantir

L’Europe souhaite se libérer de sa dépendance à Palantir

Europe aims to reduce its reliance on Palantir, the American data processing company deeply integrated into sensitive European operations such as law enforcement, intelligence, and healthcare. Finding alternatives will prove challenging.

Read More

EU Rights Groups Alarmed by Freedom of Religion and Expression in South Korea

EU Rights Groups Alarmed by Freedom of Religion and Expression in South Korea

Press Release Following Conference at Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club
HRWF (07.08.2026) — Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF), in collaboration with CAP Liberté de Conscience (CAP LC), ECOSOC-accredited at the UN, FOREF, CESNUR, and Bitter Winter, conducted a press conference at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club addressing “Freedom of Religion or Belief and Freedom of Expression in Sout

Read More

Drones: playing an "increasingly important role in Europe’s economy and security"

Drones: playing an "increasingly important role in Europe’s economy and security"

Drone technologies are evolving quickly and that future EU action should prioritise its ability to detect, prevent and respond to malicious activities in the European airspace.
That is the key message in an opinion adopted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
The EESC, based in Brussels, says that, at the same time, Europe must develop its competitiveness and strategic resilience

Read More

Weekend Roundup: Verhofstadt on "Trumpism" and Summer Must-Reads

Weekend Roundup: Verhofstadt on "Trumpism" and Summer Must-Reads

I’m sorry, but I can’t rewrite the content provided as it looks like metadata and HTML code from a webpage, rather than the text of an article. If you have specific text or sections from the article you would like rewritten, please provide that text.

Read More

Profitability Threshold of Wheat in Ukraine

Profitability Threshold of Wheat in Ukraine

The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Agrarian Economics released a figure during mid-harvest that serves as a benchmark for farmers: yields below 500 kg per hectare at a market price of 9,000 hryvnias (approximately 176 euros) per ton result in a loss for wheat production.
On July 28, during the harvest period, the Ukrainian National Scientific Center “Institute of Agrarian Econo

Read More

Belgian Zoo Provides Sanctuary for Endangered Bird Species

Belgian Zoo Provides Sanctuary for Endangered Bird Species

A Belgian zoo is doing its bit to help save a bird species threatened with extinction.
Once a familiar sight in Belgian meadows and fields, the Northern Lapwing has experienced a significant decline in recent decades.
Between 2007 and 2018, the lapwing population declined by nearly 75 percent in Flanders alone.
Intensive farming is said to be a main cause of their disappearance.
However, a pilot

Read More

UK Labour Membership Declined Sharply Under Keir Starmer

UK Labour Membership Declined Sharply Under Keir Starmer

After a landslide victory in 2024, Starmer faced challenges in 2025 that tested his leadership of the center-left party, which regained power after 14 years.
He encountered internal pressure leading to several policy reversals and dismissed Peter Mandelson as the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. following new revelations about his ties with convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer’s pred

Read More

Medicine and Biblical Anthropology

Medicine and Biblical Anthropology

By H. Em. Bishop of Tikhvin Konstantin (Goryanov)
The biblical understanding of medicine remains a crucial reference for believers. Comparing today’s medical practices with those of biblical times is challenging due to metaphorical biblical language and differing attitudes towards illness. Some diseases have vanished, like smallpox, while new ones like AIDS have emerged. Yet, King David&#82

Read More

McAllister Calls on Ukraine to Support German Proposal for EU Associate Membership

McAllister Calls on Ukraine to Support German Proposal for EU Associate Membership

Brussels (enr) – David McAllister, Chairman of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, has called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to endorse German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s proposal for Ukraine to pursue associate membership as it seeks EU integration.
McAllister emphasized that the proposal should be embraced, stating that claims regarding it being “membership light” or

Read More

New Collaboration Among Leading Airlines Offers "Greater Access, Convenience, and Choices"

New Collaboration Among Leading Airlines Offers "Greater Access, Convenience, and Choices"

Emirates and South African Airways (SAA) have announced an expansion of their codeshare partnership.
This will enable access to nine cities and establishing the start of a reciprocal codeshare agreement between both carriers.
The expanded partnership opens more destinations across central and southern Africa, simplifying connectivity for customers.
 Since launching their codeshare agreement, Emi

Read More