Presentation delivered by Sonoe Nakasone--Cataloging Coordinator for the Field Book Project headed up by the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Archives--at the Smithsonian Archives Fair on October 14, 2011 in Washington, DC.
This lecture provides an overview of the scope and purpose of the Field Book Project by highlighting what they are, research questions they address, examples, management and preservation. In addition, this talk reviews how to care for field notebooks if you have them in your own family papers.
2. • Joint initiative between the National Museum of
Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution
Archives
• Mission: one online location for field book content.
• Beginning as a Smithsonian-wide initiative and
eventually including the entire biodiversity
community.
3. What is a Field Book?
*Primary source document. A record of field events leading up
to and including the collection of biological specimens.
Typical Field books Less typical field books
(may include)
• Specimen Lists • Hand drawn Maps
• Journals with descriptions • Sketches
of collecting specimen • Photographs
• Field Correspondence
4.
5.
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7.
8.
9.
10. What is a Field Book?
*Primary source document. A record of field events leading up
to and including the collection of biological specimens.
Typical Field books Less typical field books
(may include)
• Specimen Lists • Hand drawn Maps
• Journals with accounts of • Sketches
collecting specimen • Photographs
• Field Correspondence
11. Other kinds of notes
• Depict specimens and
surrounding environment.
• Illustrate precise location
specimen was found.
• Expound or comment on
what was found.
• Something extra.
12. Field books meet several research needs
• Specific location information for specimen
• Itinerary information
• Environmental context
• Historic snapshot
13. Presented by Rusty Russell to the Society For The
Preservation of Natural History Collections
14. Presented by Rusty Russell to the Society For The
Preservation of Natural History Collections
Collected at Tucson May 15—this is a very common
plant throughout southern Ariz. In many places it is
a troublesome weed. The vine sometimes 30 feet
long climb over bushes and small trees. It produces
flowers until late in the fall. Most abundant along
marshes and creeks.
15. Conservation and Management
Photo
credit: Photo
Nora credit:
Lockshin Anna
Friedman
Preservation efforts headed by Conservator Anna Friedman are funded by the
National Park Service Save America’s Treasures grant.
16. What if there are field books in my family papers?
Illustration in a moldy
Proceed With Caution and Care A book of 19th century
scientific reports of
book, by Shannon Ramos,
national exploration
Creative Commons:
expeditions from SIA’s
Attribution 2.0.
Reference Room library,
Retrieved from October suffering from a cracked
28, 2010 article by spine and brittle paper,
Catherine Shteynberg on Courtesy of Michal Long.
The Bigger Picture. Retrieved from
September 30, 2010
article on The Bigger
Picture:
http://siarchives.si.edu/
Advise about caring for your collections The Bigger Picture : blog/taking-care-our-
own
http://siarchives.si.edu/blog/you-asked-we-answered-taking-care-your-own-
archives
Wikimedia
Commons,
retrieved
September
13, 2011
17. What if there are field books in my family papers?
Learn More About the Field Notes and Creator
• Who was your relative?
• Was collecting a job or
hobby
• If collecting was part of
their job, where did they
work?
http://www.ubio.org/portal/
• What locations and date
http://Eol.org
ranges are there?
• What Kind of Specimen are
they collecting?
18. What if there are field books in my family papers?
Is It Appropriate to Keep or to Donate?
• Historical significance: • What condition are they
locally, nationally, or in?
internationally
• Do the specimens belong • Do the field books match
to an institution? the scope of the
Check specimen catalogs of repository you want to
institutions your relative worked donate to?
for or contact the department’s
collections manager.
19. Acknowledgements
Smithsonian Project Team:
Rusty Russell, Collections & Informatics, Botany
Anne Van Camp, Director, SI Archives
Tammy Peters, Supervisory Archivist, SIA
Ricc Ferrante, Director of Digital Services, SIA
Field Book Project Team:
Carolyn Sheffield, Project Manager
Sonoe Nakasone, Cataloging Coordinator
Lesley Parilla, Cataloger and Graphics Designer
Save America’s Treasures (NPS) Team
Sarah Stauderman, Collections Care Manager, SIA
Nora Lockshin, Paper Conservator, SIA
Anna Friedman, Book Conservator, Field Books
Digitization Project
Taxonomic name of specimen highlighted in red box.
Location information highlighted in green box below taxonomic name.
Journal.
This is a Journal that includes a specimen list.
Photograph, map, sketch in annotated specimen list, field correspondence.
Background: image of a specimen in a herbarium.Foreground: image of the specimen label. This is the same information that is entered into a specimen database.
Image of an excerpt from the field book that refers to the specimen from the previous slide. The additional information provided in the field notes provides far more context than is available on the specimen label.
Left: image of field notes taken in the Department of Botany Library. Items are crowded, leaning, stacked, sticking out beyond the length of the shelf. This causes warping and other sorts of damage. Right: image of the same field books after they were relocated to a climate controlled environment with more shelf space. No treatment has been performed on these items yet, but they are already in better condition because they are stored properly and have additional room to grow as conservation work and rehousing is occurs.
Items you encounter may have mold, dust, be brittle, or fragile. They could also contain residue from harmful chemicals your relative may have worked with. Use gloves and masks if necessary, wash hands after touching materials. The link above is to an article about how to care for your collections and addresses some of these issues.
Left: image of a database for taxonomic names. This is the user friendly version, but a more straight forward version is simply www.ubio.org/. EOL is also a good resource. In both cases, type in the taxonomic names listed in a field book to learn what kind of specimens your relative was collecting.
Your relative may not be famous nationally or internationally, but are they a local celebrity, leader, or noted scientist? Did your relative teach at a local university? Were they a prominent member of a local nature society?Specimens and their field notes should ideally be together. If the specimens are at the Smithsonian for example, you might consider donating the field notes to the Smithsonian Archives. What condition are they in? You may want to consult an expert to weigh your options if they are in poor condition.Archives and other institutions have specific missions. Perhaps what you have is out of their scope. Find out what they collect by going to their website or calling. Your items may be very important, but might not be right for that institution.