Sourcing the cultural heritage crowd

The core business of an archive is to safeguard information for future generations but equally important to retrieve the information when needed. To retrieve information you have to know if you have the information and where it is stored in the archive. In other words you have to describe every object in the collection. Since archives grow in a tremendous rate it's inconceivable that archivists can describe everything in their possession. Especially with annual budget cuts hitting everybody in Western Europe volunteers are used more and more to assist in day to day operations and describing objects. But this was limited to the people that were able to come to the archive. There was no solid solution for people who were not able to come but who did have time and motivation to spend. Can this untapped power source be a potential problem solver?