All Souls appeals for help to make sermons easier to find

The church of John Stott has appealed for help from supporters to make its archive of sermons and talks easier for people to find.

All Souls Church, Langham Place in London is wading its way through the mammoth task of tagging 3,600 free sermons and talks.

The church decided more than a decade ago to make its entire archive free, even though the income from sales was enough to pay for a year's wage for one of its workers.

It took the decision out of the belief that the talks should be a resource for the global church.

The archive goes all the way back to the 1960s when John Stott was still rector and is being constantly added to each week with all the latest Sunday and midweek talks.

Although the 3,000-plus talks are already available online, the lack of tags - words added to files to allow visitors to search the archive - is making it harder for visitors to find specific sermons.

Staff at All Souls believe that crowdsourcing is the answer.

"Currently, if you know the Bible passage, the preacher or even the sermon's title, it is relatively straightforward to find what you want," a church staff member explains. "But what if you want a sermon on a particular topic? This is where tagging comes in.

"We have over 3,600 sermons and talks in the archive. If we just relied on our web team, it would take months and months. However, if we can harness the interest and support of our many subscribers through crowdsourcing, it would take a matter of only a few weeks.

"If 300 people tag 10 sermons each, in one month, we could get the whole lot done."

To lend your help, visit: www.allsouls.org/Articles/309547/All/Resourcing/Sermons/Sermon.aspx