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

2. www.nmh.si.edu/fieldbooks @FieldBookProj siarchives.si.edu @SmithsonianArch transcription.si.edu @Transcribe_SI

3. 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.

5. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. New inroads The Project team expanded to include the Smithsonian Institution Libraries in 2013. Access to field books expanded by exposing them through aggregators: Digital Public Library of America Biodiversity Heritage Library.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. Recovery and new uses

15. ExploreDiscover

18. Darwin Wallace Livingstone

19. observe investigate survey

20. record document

23. Journal of Henry Eld, U.S. Exploring Expedition

27. Three Dimensions of Biodiversity

28. ORGANISM

29. LOCATION

30. ORGANISM LOCATION DATE

35. Document Explore

36. Acquire Preserve

37. Study Report

39. BEHAVIOR

40. SYMBIOSES

41. NAMES BEHAVIOR SYMBIOSES

42. NAMES BEHAVIOR ETHNOBIOLOGY SYMBIOSES

43. NAMES IMAGES BEHAVIOR ETHNOBIOLOGY SYMBIOSES

44. NAMES IMAGES BEHAVIOR ETHNOBIOLOGY SYMBIOSES TRAITS

45. NAMES IMAGES BEHAVIOR ETHNOBIOLOGY SYMBIOSES SEQUENCES TRAITS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

53. “THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH DATA”

54. Accelerate Data Acquisition Facilitate Content Delivery

55. THANKS! QUESTIONS?

56. www.nmh.si.edu/fieldbooks @FieldBookProj siarchives.si.edu @SmithsonianArch transcription.si.edu @Transcribe_SI