Project Overview and History

Project Overview

Field notes, also called field books or field documentation, are unique, original records of scientific discovery. They are significant sources of information for current research, providing rich data that helps researchers understand how biodiversity has changed over time and across geographic regions. They enhance information associated with museum and research center specimens by providing details regarding dates, localities (for geo-referencing), and associated event data. They also provide unique insights into the scientific process and local and world history, as they contain not just data but also personal observations on the places, people, and events that were observed or transpired during collecting expeditions.

Regrettably, field book collections are often distributed across departments within an institution or even across multiple institutions with no centralized access point, complicating researcher’s ability to discover and access them. Furthermore, although generally considered archival documents, field books are just as frequently managed in museum collections, science labs, and discipline-specific libraries. These various types of custodianship result in a myriad of descriptive practices with varying levels of detail, further compounding access and usability issues.

In 2010, to meet these challenges, the Smithsonian Field Book Project was created. The Project began as a joint initiative between the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) to create a central field book registry where researchers could discover comprehensive field books and other field research materials. Initially funded by the Council for Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and led by co-investigators Rusty Russell and Anne Van Camp, the Project began to locate and catalog field books in participating departments across the Smithsonian.

The Project developed a cataloging system that bridges the metadata gap between collection-level and item-level description. Using this framework, the Project has cataloged more than 7,200 field books across 8 departments and divisions of the Smithsonian. Field book catalog records were made available to the public for the first time in December 2012 on Smithsonian’s Collection Search Center.

Over the course of the grant period, NMNH and SIA worked together to acquire additional funding to support the conservation and digital imaging of the field books to further enhance access. Grants from Save America’s Treasures and the Smithsonian Women’s Committee supported conservation and digitization staff and interns. As a result, the cataloged field books have been assessed by conservation staff, which has enabled ongoing conservation and digitization.

Next Steps

The Project is now entering a second phase where it will continue to discover, catalog, and conserve field books at the Smithsonian, but with the expanded goal of digitization for a significant number of field books, and publication of the digital content to the Biodiversity Heritage Library. This project phase continues to involve the National Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian Archives with the addition of the Smithsonian Libraries and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. During this phase of the project, cataloging, digitization, and BHL upload documentation will be made available to BHL partners who are working on their own field book projects to encourage them to also contribute this type of content to the BHL web platform.