The Projeto Flora Amazônica field books: An excellent resource for improving data input efficiency

D. Shannon AsencioThe William and Linda Steere Herbarium

The New York Botanical Garden

The William and Lynda Steere Herbarium

• Steere Herbarium (NY) is among the four largest in the world (ca. 7 million specimens); largest in the western hemisphere

• All plants groups represented, as well as fungi and lichens

• Emphasis on New World flora, with particular strength in Brazilian specimens

Collections digitization at NY• Started 17 years ago• KE EMu (Electronic Museum) software• System of nested modules• Good choice for integrating data previously

generated in NYpc• Used for maintaining Index Herbariorum, a

global directory of public herbaria and associated staff

• American Botanical Literature searchable database

• Curator research web pages

Projeto Flora Amazônica• Bi-national effort

between Brazil and U.S.

• Initiated in January 1976

• First expedition took place late 1977

• 25 expeditions• Fieldwork completed

1987Prance et al., 1984

Programa Flora• Four principal objectives:

1) To produce as complete an inventory as possible of the plant resources of Brazil

2) To make the data gathered available in an easily accessible format so that it can be used for the social and economic benefit of humans

3) To establish regional research centers throughout Brazil capable of carrying out the inventory on a local basis, in preparation for studies on economic uses of plants, ecological challenges, and environmental conservation

4) To encourage the education and training of Brazilian botanists, particularly in plant systematics and data management, through graduate courses and training programs

Prance et al., 1984

Amazon Digitization Project• Started in January 2008• Goal: to catalogue and

image all NY specimens from the Brazilian Amazon

• Initial approach: skeletal records

• Later approach: complete geographical data

• Data repatriation: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA)

Google Maps

Methods for improving rapid data entry

• Importation of duplicate specimen data from other institutions

• Querying nearby collection data

• Mass collection data input using collector field books

Field books in the archives of NY

Field books – sample layoutPlant family

Plant descriptionCollection locality No. of duplicates

DeterminationCollection no.

Collection dateHabitat

Collection data input

The product

Results

• A total of 53,920 specimen collection events created using field books

• Average of 641 collection records created each day using this method

• Productivity as high as 1,557 records created in a single day

• Cataloguing rates up ca. 50%

Caution!• Older field books can be difficult to read

and interpret• Collection numbers are not necessarily

unique identifiers• Separate data sources (e.g. field books vs.

labels): possible inconsistencies• Data must be validated!

Conclusions• It is worth exploring a variety of data sources,

especially when undertaking large-scale cataloguing projects

• Using data gathered in the field (i.e. field books) is an effective method for improving the work flow of databasing projects

• Naturally grouped data, such as field book entries, are easy to enter collectively and can provide comparable data quality to specimen labels

• These advantages to data entry can be applied to any type of specimen cataloguing, not just botanical cataloguing

Acknowledgements• National Science Foundation

• Barbara Thiers, Michael Bevans, Anthony Kirchgessner, Melissa Tulig, Benito Santos, Nicole Tarnowsky, Stephen Gottschalk, Benjamin Saracco, and several volunteers

• Visit the Virtual Herbarium: http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/vii2.asp