I guess I have another comment on documenting. The practical part.
I've, over the years, used various things to write on in the field. A
journal seems simple, but out there you forget all you should write
down. So a form of some kind is better as it prods you to get all the
data. I've tried standard notebook size forms on regular paper, but they
tend to get crumpled and messed up a lot. So, I'm using preprinted
cards. I started this as the Herp Atlas had a preprinted card for us to
fill out and send in. It was reasonable for photos and such like, but
fell short for audio, or required a lot of redundant writing out in the
field as each card was for one species. And it was sent in, so I needed
records of my own. So, I designed my own card, sticking with their 4" x
7" size. As I noted it's site oriented and has spaces for 8 species. So
far I've never had more than 8 species at a site, though I have reached
that number a few times. I laid out the card design in a graphic program
(Deneba's Canvas) and printed masters of the extra bright white paper
with our laserprinter. Periodic trips to Kinko's are necessary to print
cards from these. Two cards will fit on a sheet of card stock, and
Kinko's has heavy cutters to cut stacks of those that they don't charge
all that much. The 4" x 7" size is fairly convenient in the field and
you can find ziplock bags that fit nicely (at Containers for me). The
cards stand up reasonably well if you keep them out of the rain. As far
as the Herp Atlas, designing my own cards, which are the originals meant
that I had to transcribe to the cards to be sent in. A chore. Their
system I'd have half a foot high stack of cards from my stack of a inch
or so due to breaking out all the species. BTW, the 4" X 7" size fits
VHS storage systems pretty well.
Now, using cards does limit you as to writing real estate. The old style
naturalists got real good with fine ink pins for museum specimens, and
I've done that sort of fine stuff. But when you go to transfer into a
computer database it's much more time consuming than more regular size
writing. So that's what I do on my cards. When designing your card,
think about filling it out, preprint everything you can, simplify as
much as possible, you want it quick to do. For instance my GPS line has
the degrees, minutes, seconds preprinted, just write in values. And it
goes without saying that the card organization should relate to your
database. My entry format in the database is organized much like the cards.
Speaking of writing, use waterproof ink or pencil, preferably ink. I'm
partial to the ultra fine sharpies, easier to work with than a
rapidograph and drafting ink, which is traditional.
You can talk data into the tracks, this was important with analog tape
where finding a track was a chore. It's less important with digital that
finds tracks instantly. I've gradually got to where I talk little if any
into the track as a result. And transferring data from recording to
database is less convenient than from cards. With the minidiscs, I do
use the titling to put a year and index number for each disk. It's time
and date stamping each track automatically, though this data is lost in
transferring to computer.
Walt
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