Notes From Nature Talk

Odd location description?

  • tesherista by tesherista

    " T28S, R17E, Sec. 2, SE 1/4 of SE 1/4." Is this a location description (coordinates/section of preserve where collected), or something else?

    Posted

  • md68135 by md68135 scientist

    That information is called the Public Land Survey System (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System). We often refer to it as "Township, Range and Section." It actually is different than coordinates which are a point based system. The PLSS section refers to a 1 square mile block of land. I used to use this on my labels before GPS was common. It is rarely used nowadays.

    It does go into the locality field

    Posted

  • HelenBennett57 by HelenBennett57

    Thank you! I have added a link to your information to this Transcription Standards thread, which I still use from time to time as I can update it - don't know if others do.

    Posted

  • Bonnie123 by Bonnie123

    @md68135: Thanks for explaining this,

    @HelenBennett57: Thanks for the link to the Transcription Standards-I must have missed that, great info there.

    Posted

  • am.zooni by am.zooni

    I second that. Thanks @HelenBennett57! I missed this thread too. Although there's some overlap with the FAQ, there's lots more really useful info here.

    Here's one that doesn't seem to have a consensus answer: if the label says "Sheet x of y", should we transcribe it or not? @md68135 or any other #scientist here, what would you like us to do in this case?

    As for error corrections, most of the ones I've found are spelling, some plant names where you can cite references on The Plant List, ITIS or plants.USDA and others are locations which are (often) easy to find references for (common ones for SELU: Ponchatoula doesn't have a 't' after the 'n' but Lake Pontchartrain does; the town Ramsay, LA has an 'a' but Lake Ramsey has an 'e'). If I'm CERTAIN it's a typo/spelling error, I transcribe the correct spelling and add a comment tagged #error with the website reference to the correct spelling. If I'm not certain, I'll transcribe exactly what's on the label and add a comment flagged #unclear plus #scientist for plant names or #location for places, and describe what my uncertainty. I try to always add a comment whenever I make a judgement call when transcribing, so if a human being actually sees the set of transcriptions for an image, they can find the explanatory comments.

    Posted

  • HelenBennett57 by HelenBennett57

    Sounds good - I remember a scientist comment ages back, saying flag things with #error if you've looked it up and you're absolutely certain. I've been doing that, and using Mr Kevvy's set phrase "corrected in transcription".

    Sheet x of y: I've been transcribing them, missing out all the fields (i.e. most) for which there is no data. I think I've put in comments for them but can't honestly remember. If nothing else, if they get transcribed then they'll be marked done and won't be kicking around being annoying 😃

    It's nice to see some conversation happening here again.

    Posted

  • md68135 by md68135 scientist in response to am.zooni's comment.

    I don't think I would enter "sheet x of y" myself. I would recommend not transcribing it.

    I'll have to check if this is in the FAQ. It doesn't come up frequently, but I am pretty sure it has been asked before.

    Posted

  • Bonnie123 by Bonnie123 in response to md68135's comment.

    What a good memory you have, this is in the FAQ, it is #32.

    Posted