In the course of our work
we've always aspired to the standards of
natural history record-keeping
established by the Grinnell tradition, forged in the
settlement of the western USA, of preserving records and
specimens that
will allow future tests of plausible hypotheses
about ecological change.
(Steven G. Herman. 1986. "The Naturalist's Field Journal: A manual
of instruction based on a system established by Joseph
Grinnell" Buteo Books, Vermillion, South Dakota. 200 pp.).
We have not, however,
adhered strictly to the classic Grinnell format, but have each
developed our own record-keeping systems, which this page
records.
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural
History Centre
Contact us by phone at (613)258-3107 or e-mail bckcdb@istar.ca
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Bishops Mills Natural
History Centre
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Thirty Years Later:
Evolution of journal and field notebook styles
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad - Bishops Mills Natural
History Centre
Historically, every naturalist kept some kind
of records. Some of these,
such as Darwin's journals of the Voyage of the Beagle and Thoreau's
records of conditions in Concord, Massachusetts, were thorough and
detailed, though for others the labels on collected specimens were
thought to be a sufficient record of where they'd been and what they'd
found.
We've each been keeping natural history journals since we were
teenagers: Fred beginning on his own and then learning the Grinnell
system at Cornell University as an undergraduate, while Aleta was taught
a narrative style of journal in bound books by Frank Ross during her art
school years in Toronto. Aleta's journals integrate
design, illustration, observation, and data
(Karstad, Aleta. 2000. "Drawing from Life" Trail and
Landscape 34(3):110-116).
Fred, on the other, has adapted the Grinnell
system of precisely geo-temporally referenced, hypothesis-testing,
observations to computer and GPS technologies (Schueler, Frederick W.
2000. "Navigating as Naturalists with the Global Positioning
System" Trail and Landscape 34(1):35-40; and 2001,
"Interest is paid on deposits in your provincial databank"
The Boreal Dipnet 5(2):1-3).
Our goal, since 1993, has been to have all this electronically available
in a database formatted to contain both records of individual species
and phenomena encountered and a coherent narrative of our observational
activities. This database currently contains 83,790 records (12h19, 20
July 2009), and grows by about 3-5K records in most years. Since 1996
locations have been mostly based on the GPS (see Schueler, Frederick
W. 2000. "Navigating as Naturalists with the Global Positioning
System" Trail and Landscape 34(1):35-40.).
We employed these methods (geo-referencing with maps, before we had GPS)
in our exploration of the Lake Ontario Waterfront (Karstad, Schueler,
& LeeAnn Locker. 1995. "A place to walk: A naturalist's
journal of theLake Ontario Waterfront Trail" Natural
Heritage/Natural History,Toronto. 159 pp.), where Aleta's text from her
illustrated pages was entered in the database with Fred & Lee Ann
Locker's field notes, and the text was edited down from the narrative
output of these combined writings.
Now, as data entry for each year is completed, we bind
narrative output as archival quality volumes. Copies of the database
are deposited in interested public institutions (currently the Ontario
Natural Heritage Information Centre, Canadian Museum of Nature, and New
Brunswick Museum).
In 2004 we introduced theNatureJournal a system of
equipment, pages, and instruction intended for the use and training of
record-keeping naturalists of all ages and levels of experience, derived
from our system of field note-keeping, and informed by our experience of
describing a wide range of natural phenomena since 1969.
Historically, our formats for field notes have been:
1969-1984: illustrated narrative in pre-bound volumes (AKS)
1969-1972: Grinnell-style field notes, specimen catalogue & journal
(FWS)
1973-1984: Specimen catalogue and 8.5x11 inch journal pages & NMNS
herpetology & ichthyology datasheets (FWS)
1985-present: illustrated narrative on watercolour paper looseleaf (AKS)
1985-1989: Specimen catalogue and 8.5x?11 inch journal pages & NMNS
datasheets, with contemporary text entry of non-specimen observations
and narrative (FWS).
1990: Specimen catalogue and 8.5x?11 inch datasheets in a variety of
formats, contemporary entry of herpetological observations into database
(FWS).
1999-present: 'day-planner' database records entered on handheld
computer (AKS).
1991-present: 5.5x8.5 inch journal pages & datasheets derived from
NMNS format, with ongoing entry into database (FWS).
2004-present: use of theNatureJournal pages.
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