Extending the Lifecycle of Scientific Field Notes: Making Hidden Collections Reusable Riccardo Ferrante Smithsonian Institution Rusty Russell National Museum of Natural History CNI Project Briefing Fall 2014 Washington, DC - December 2014

Buried treasure Scientific field notes and field books dating back into the 19th century and before house an untapped trove of valuable data. Often undocumented and with limited physical access, their potential contribution to new knowledge creation is barely tapped. Much could be accomplished with the tools available to researchers today provided these datasets can be recovered in ways that make them machine-accessible. Until then, their information lifecycle is limited and research communities the poorer for it. Bailey, Vernon. Field notes, California and Colorado, October 19-November 12, 1891, and Washington, D.C., January 1892.

Access - bounded value In 2008, Anne Van Camp of the Smithsonian Institution Archives and Rusty Russell from the National Museum of Natural History kicked off an effort to locate and provide access to this part of the scientific record with initial funding from CLIR.

Making headway The Smithsonian Field Book Project has cataloged nearly 9,000 field books to date, using the descriptive standards MODS, EAC and NCD. These are online and digitization of these materials is underway.

Making inroads Pic of map A joint effort of the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the Project has added additional access to its digital collections through the Digital Public Library of America and the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

New inroads The Project team expanded to include the Smithsonian Institution Libraries in Access to field books expanded by exposing them through aggregators: Digital Public Library of America Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Many hands, light work, new depths Its most recent inroad, crowd-sourced transcriptions, provide the most granular access including use of these primary sources as open data.

Recovery and new uses Over 16,000 pages of field books have been transcribed, fully indexed in the past 16 months and are now searchable internally and across field books. Together, these approaches enable the Smithsonian Field Book Project to recover these data treasures and make them accessible in ways previously not possible.

Recovery and new uses

ExploreDiscover

Darwin Wallace Livingstone

observe investigate survey

record document

Journal of Henry Eld, U.S. Exploring Expedition

Three Dimensions of Biodiversity

ORGANISM

LOCATION

ORGANISM LOCATION DATE

Document Explore

Acquire Preserve

Study Report

BEHAVIOR

SYMBIOSES

NAMES BEHAVIOR SYMBIOSES

NAMES BEHAVIOR ETHNOBIOLOGY SYMBIOSES

NAMES IMAGES BEHAVIOR ETHNOBIOLOGY SYMBIOSES

NAMES IMAGES BEHAVIOR ETHNOBIOLOGY SYMBIOSES TRAITS

NAMES IMAGES BEHAVIOR ETHNOBIOLOGY SYMBIOSES SEQUENCES TRAITS

Rafinesque’s drawings of fish observed during trip from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1818

Rafinesque’s drawings of fish observed during trip from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1818 What – Where - When

Rafinesque’s drawings of fish observed during trip from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1818 What – Where - When Behavior

Rafinesque’s drawings of fish observed during trip from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1818 What – Where - When Behavior Images

Rafinesque’s drawings of fish observed during trip from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1818 What – Where - When Behavior Images Traits

Rafinesque’s drawings of fish observed during trip from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1818 What – Where - When Behavior Images Traits Uses

Rafinesque’s drawings of fish observed during trip from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1818 What – Where - When Behavior Images Traits Uses Weather

“THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH DATA”

Accelerate Data Acquisition Facilitate Content Delivery

THANKS! QUESTIONS?