ORNITHOLOGICAL-FAQs (need answers from scientist)
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mlwtt159
On my page the species and place are ditto'd all down the page but half way down the date spaces are blank. Do I assume the last date that is there would have been ditto'd too but just wasn't and I use the last date or do I leave it blank too?
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Blank dates: I've been leaving blank dates blank, on the assumption that the scribe genuinely didn't know the date. Sometimes a few values are blank, sometimes it's the whole thing. Wasteful 😦
Scientific name repeated or not in modern form: I've been transcribing as written; I figure it'll be easier for someone to run a comparison of the transcribed records against a Mr Kevvy-style dictionary of modern scientific names, and figure out the modern version of the differences.
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robgur
scientist, admin
Some answers, finally:
Q: When is our work saved? Is it when we hit the Finish button, or not until we hit the Next Ledger button?
Great question, because I think the answer is complicated. We save records row by row but also need to figure out when pages are saved, so the answer is effectively both.
Q: Scientific name repeated. Example: Chalcomitra senegalensis senegalensis. Do we input it as it is, or input Chalcomitra senegalensis?
A repeated name is likely a subspecies. For your particular examples, you can see the subspecies here: http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=0059A2E0EAFC6106, under geographic range information. Cool bird!
Q: Sometimes to the side of the bird name is written “Spirit”. Do we need to input that somewhere? If so do we put it with the scientific bird name? Same question for when it says “Skull” or “Skeleton”.
No but this refers to the preservation basis and the basis of record. Its valuable information so we might set up a way to capture that for these ledgers down the road.
Q: Most pages are the left side of the log and contains all the data to be inputted, what are we supposed to input when we are issued an image of the right side of the ledger when it contains data but nothing we normally would input?
Good question! I would skip that page, and in the future I think we should probably provide a way to collate "bad pages" --- those that are not usable by you guys.
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CharlotteBio
I put a "0" for each field of the date that is blank.
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HelenBennett57
in response to CharlotteBio's comment.
Hmmm... that's unambiguous for days and months, but for years it could be mistaken for 00. Quicker to leave it blank 😃
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HelenBennett57
in response to robgur's comment.
Re. 'we need to figure out when a page is done', how about a "Whole page transcribed" checkbox by the "Next ledger" button?
This would give some feedback about the number of rows to expect in each page (and also which pages have been only part-done, or skipped).I'll add this to the Ornithology bugs and enhancements thread.
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CharlotteBio
For year I put "0000".
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When a page has a pencilled date halfway down the left margin, as in this example at row 2146, do we start a new batch number?
I have been assuming no, ignore the pencilled date, since it doesn't obviously fit the fields given.
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CharlotteBio
in response to robgur's comment.
I tend to type everything one way or another - for a bird annotated as "spirit" I put that beside the species name.
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CharlotteBio
With the pencilled date on the left-hand side of the page is it possible that it was the date the ledger was written up? You note the dates recorded vary widely (or are blank) so possibly it was the clerk recording the entry at the start of that day. I don't know what they did or how the whole process worked, but perhaps they needed to collate all the specimens first into the order that they appear in the ledgers which would have taken a little time?
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CharlotteBio
Have just been dumped out AGAIN - page was 1932 8-5 in the hundreds, Masailand and Tanganyika Territory birds. Would really really really like to be able to go back and complete these pages please.
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HelenBennett57
in response to CharlotteBio's comment.
I think the pencilled date probably was indeed the date it was written up (i.e. not part of a batch number), so ignored it.
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Years written as just two digits, e.g. "70" - transcribe as written? (This is what I've been doing, since the ledger date is a giveaway.)
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CharlotteBio
Re: pencilled dates (above) would they be the date that the specimen was catalogued?
Have been working on pages where the dates are completely blank (no ditto marks). Had assumed that the clerk hadn't been able to find an appropriate date but it has just occurred to me that perhaps they copy the date above and therefore this should be entered in the entries below. Is this correct? For the time being however until told otherwise I will continue to enter dates as 00 00 0000.
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robgur
scientist, admin
Checking with the Science Team from Natural History Museum London.
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ochichornye
Have just transcribed an entire page from a 1930 leger on East African birds. Each line listed the sex of the specimen, but there was no field in the digitisation system to record it. This information is therefore lost.
Could you add a field (perhaps next to species name) where sex is registered?
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robgur
scientist, admin
I will check with the NHML folks and see what they say, @ochichornye
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CharlotteBio
in response to robgur's comment.
Wonderful to have robgur's answers - thanks Rob.
Re the pencilled date that is sometimes to the left - I presumed that this was the date the clerk who was writing up the ledgers started a new day and therefore irrelevant.
With the sex and age (adult/juvenile/immature) of the birds I have been entering this information with the species details - seems a shame not to include it. (e.g. Genus species subspecies, ♂, adult). I am using an Apple Mac computer and can CMD copy for the species name and drag and drop symbols (for gender) so have been doing that to allow the variations. However having a better system within the template would be wonderful.
Still frustrated that I am losing access to pages that I can't finish - 'cos I press a dud key, there is an internet drop-out (or other things I am not aware of) - where are these pages stored and will we be able to access them at some time?
Charlotte Burton-Bell, Wellington NZ.
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CharlotteBio
I have imagined that perhaps the date on the side was entered by the person writing up the ledger - it looks as if the specimens were collated some considerable time after being collected, and then written up, and the date on the side perhaps was some sort of administrative date?
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CharlotteBio
Oh - and just to confirm as we are dealing with Victorian handwriting - I try to verify as best I can the species names via Google - Avibase, or a more general web search but TWIS only for the locations as it would take too much time to work out what a location should be. Is that OK?
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CharlotteBio
in response to robgur's comment.
I have been typing the gender and age (where they are noted and separated by commas) in after the full species name. Then the information is recorded and I presume this would be useful to have for statistical purposes. But haven't had any feedback from anyone as whether or not this is useful!
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Hi Charlotte,
My guess is that the gender and age get stripped out by the algorithm that makes the consensus transcription, since they aren't a requested part of the species name field and so most people won't be copying them.
I'm sorry you haven't had any official feedback; I'm getting disappointed with that too.
If you like, I can try to dig out the post about how the consensus transcription is generated. It made for interesting reading.
Helen
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@md68135 please?
Resurrecting this thread, like a dodo in spirit...
When there is a date in the left hand margin, as in this example, should we ignore that? I'm assuming it's the date when the ledger entry was made and doesn't match any of the fields that you want transcribing.
Help please!
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JadeLaurenCawthrayNHM
scientist
in response to HelenBennett57's comment.
Hello Helen, Yes you are correct, the data in the left hand margin can be ignored. I'm not 100% sure why that date is there, but like you think it might be a note of when the entry was made into the ledger. Many thanks for helping with the transcriptions. Jade
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HelenBennett57
in response to JadeLaurenCawthrayNHM's comment.
Cheers 😃
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