The Field Book Project aims to connect and organize field books, which are underrepresented collections across various institutions, including museums and archives. It seeks to create a standardized registry to improve access and description of these field notes, enhancing their usability for researchers and the public. Future goals include crowdsourced transcriptions and educational resources to promote better understanding and access to field book content.

1. The Field Book Project: Connecting Field Books with the World
Sonoe Nakasone, Smithsonian Field Book Project and Nicholas Pyenson, Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution
Field Book Project Frank C. Whitmore Field notes from Why does this matter?
A joint initiative between the Peru and the Galapagos -Field books constitute “hidden”
collections, materials that have little or no
National Museum of Natural
3 4 access
History and the Smithsonian
Institution Archives. Our goal is to
-Field books created by one person or
create a Field Book Registry that during one expedition may be housed by
provides one online location for multiple institutions
field book content everywhere.
1 2 -There is no community adopted standard
for describing and accessing field notes
because they are housed by museums,
archives, and libraries—all of which
approach field notes differently.
-Field data may be lost through
carelessness, loss of institutional memory,
and lack of tracking and organization
Two Levels of Description
-Field data may be difficult to read due to
1) Collection-Level
handwriting and the personalized note
Natural Collections Descriptions (NCD) taking system of the collector
http://www.tdwg.org/activities/ncd/
Developed for describing natural history 6
5
materials, this schema provides the
functional context in which each volume
was created and establishes clear Do you have field notes from
relationships to other items created within
the same context.
this…
2) Item-Level COLLECTOR?
Metadata Object Description Schema PLACE?
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/ EXPEDITION?
Provides more granular access to subject TYPE OF
matter covered within individual volumes SPECIMEN?
in order to more easily search and browse DATE?
within the catalog. SPECIFIC FORMATS?
Image Credits Future Goals Learn More Online
1. Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU01-245, SIA-2012-12140 Online Access to digitized field Inclusion of field notes from Website: www.mnh.si.edu/rc/fieldbooks
2. Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU01-245, SIA-2012-12141 notes repositories internationally Blog: http://nmnh.typepad.com/fieldbooks/
3. Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU01-245, SIA-2012-12142
Education: www.mnh.si.edu/rc/fieldbooks/education
4. Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU01-245, SIA-2012-12144 Crowdsourced transcriptions Create educational materials
to enable keyword searching for K-12 students as well as Flickr: www.mnh.si.edu/rc/fieldbooks/flickr
5. Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU02-012, SIA-2012-12146
of field book content life-long learners Twitter: http://twitter.com/fieldbookproj
6. Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU02-012, SIA-2012-12150