The Projeto Flora Amazônica field
books: An excellent resource for
improving data input efficiency
D. Shannon Asencio
The 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
1987
Prance et al., 1984
Programa Flora
•
Four principal objectives:
1)
2)
3)
4)
To produce as complete an inventory as possible of the
plant resources of Brazil
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
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
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 layout
Plant family
Collection locality
Collection no.
Plant description
Habitat
Determination
Collection date
No. of duplicates
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