Connecting Content: The Field Book Project

at the Smithsonian and at the California Academy of Sciences

Carolyn Sheffield, Project ManagerField Book Project, Smithsonian

Two Projects

Field Book Project• Led by PIs Rusty Russell

and Anne Van Camp• Improve access to

biodiversity field books • Cataloging, conserving,

digitizing

Connecting Content• Led by PI Becky Morin and

initiated with former co-PI Danielle Castronovo

• Enable links between field books, specimens, and published literature

Examples of field books

Examples of field books?

And this.

Related projects

MARC15.4%

Dublin Core10.3%

EAD12.8%

Local Schema17.9%

ICMS7.7%

Specify2.6%

No answer33.3%

Related Cataloging Practices

Information Needs

• Geographical location – 67%• Environment and habitat descriptions – 41% • Species information – 33% • Narrative or historical information – 15%

Existing Standards

• Collection Level: Natural Collections Description (NCD)

• Item level: Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS)

• Archival Authority Control: Encoded Archival Context (EAC)

NCD CollectionCollectionId: NCDC78Title: Frederick Coville, field books, 1890-1924Owner: EACO9Creator: EACP173Description: The collection consists of Coville's field notes from botanical collecting and observation efforts in …

MODS Item MODSid: MODSI1281Collection: NCDC78Title: Field notes, Death Valley Expedition, 1891Dates: 1891.05.10-1891.07.30Creator: EACP173Expedition: EACE 0017Abstract: This item contains narrative notes and lists of botanical specimens collected or observed during Coville's research in Death Valley . …

EAC PersonPersonId: EACP173Name: Coville, Frederick (Frederick Vernon), 1867-1937Dates: 1867-1937Biographical history: Frederick Vernon Coville, botanist and blueberry breeder, was born in New York and educated…

EAC ExpeditionExpId: EACE0017Name: Death Valley Expedition Dates: 1890-1891Description: The Death Valley Expedition was the first biological survey to …

EAC OrganizationOrgId: EACO9Name: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany

Metadata!

Field Books Cataloged to Date

• Item Records: 5,220• Collection Records: 450• EAC (Authority) Records: 792

How will we bring them together?

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Connecting Content

Two Separate Projects

Partners

Pilot Projects

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Digitization focusing on field books and specimens

&

Present Content in an Open Harvestable Manner

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Encyclopedia of Life

18http://www.eol.org/

JSTOR Plant Science

Smithsonian Field Book Registry

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Partners will Contribute Natural Collections Description (NCD) records for field notes

Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Challenge: Making the Connections

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Ambiguity often exists between field notes and individual specimens and objects

Results: Data Mashups

23http://afg.biodiversity.aq

Next Stepsfor Both Projects

• Testing, iterating, streamlining the Field Book Registry

• EAC records for automated linking• Acquiring new partners and content in all

aforementioned resources• Crowd sourcing field note transcriptions and

text processing of taxonomic names• Pilot project mash-ups made public and

encourage others to create their own mashups

Acknowledgments

• Connecting Content, California Academy of Sciences Library for contributing beautiful slides

• Project teams and partners on Connecting Content and Field Book Project

Connecting ContentWebsite: http://research.calacademy.org/library/fieldnotes

Blog: http://www.calacademy.org/blogs/connecting_content/

Primary Contact: Project Manager Yolanda Bustos ybustos@calacademy.org

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Field Book Project

Website:http://mnh.si.edu/rc/fieldbooks/

Blog: http://nmnh.typepad.com/fieldbooks/

Flickr: http://tinyurl.com/fbpflickr

Contact: Carolyn Sheffield, sheffieldc@si.edu

Thank you