Canadian wildlife: notes from the field

What are these notes?
These are field notes made by a wildlife enthusiast in Canada. He isn’t a professional, and no one commissioned him to make them for any specific research purpose. At the time of recording he was a truck driver working in and around Ontario, Canada, who just happened to have a keen interest in wildlife and a wealth of knowledge. Instead of napping or reading the paper, he spent his lunch breaks and rest stop breaks recording the local wildlife and making observations and notes on their habitat and behaviour. These sheets are the field notes that he made and sent to the British Library, along with the audio recordings.

Why transcribe these notes?
The Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project has digitised over 300,000 rare and at risk recordings so that they're saved for future generations. Tom Cosburn’s audio recordings are within that number. In addition to the recordings, he spent such time and care on these meticulous notes and they're truly a wonderful collection of documentation that contextualise the sounds that he captured. We want to preserve his notes to sit alongside the audio files so that they’re there for everyone to discover.

Why do you only want certain fields to be transcribed?
All of the other fields have already been transcribed by our cataloguers!

If there is a spelling mistake should I correct it?
Please just transcribe the notes as they are written. There's a option at the end of the task to report a spelling error if you find one.

What should I do if I can’t read a word?
Firstly, take a look at the field guide. There we’ve put together some of Tom’s most common handwriting idiosyncrasies. That might help you decode what is written down! If that’s still no help then do one of these things:
If a word is unclear but you have made a good guess at what it says, then please put your guess within square brackets, like this [ ] and at the end of the task click the box that reports that you found a word unclear.
If a word is totally illegible then please add [xxx] and at the end of the task click the box that reports that you found a word illegible.

Is there a reference list I can use?
Yes, there are two lists that you can refer to when trying to work out the individual species. They can be found in the Field Guide, which is accessible via the tab on the righthand side of the page.

Where will the information go?
Once completed, the data will be ingested into our Sounds and Moving Image catalogue (SAMI) at the British Library. This is a catalogue that researchers and enthusiast alike can use to find all the audio recordings held at the Library. Once the new BLSounds website has launched users will also be able to find the information there, and they will be able to listen to the wildlife sounds on our new open source Universal Player.

Where can I hear the audio recordings that these notes are for?
At the moment you can listen to this collection onsite in our reading rooms at the British Library. You just need a reader's pass, which is free and you can register for here. After the launch of the new BLSounds website you will be able to listen to them online.

Where can I find out more about the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project?
Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is a UK-wide project based at the British Library, with 10 regional and national partner institutions. Find out more about them here: Unlocking Our Sound Heritage - The British Library .

Does the British Library have other collections of field notes like this?
The British Library does hold a variety of different field notes for wildlife sounds, but very few are as detailed and consistent as these!

What other wildlife recordings does the British Library hold?
The British Library wildlife and environmental sounds archive was established in 1969 by the ornithologist Patrick Seller and the BBC radio producer Jeffrey Boswell. Since then it has amassed over 6.5 million recordings! For a very brief overview of the contents of those collections take a look at this guide.

Does the British Library have wildlife sounds from other parts of the world?
Absolutely! The collection is definitely a global one and includes recordings made on all seven continents. Over the past 50 years we have archived the sounds of both terrestrial and aquatic animals, from lemurs in Madagascar to whales in the Atlantic Ocean. We have a range of underwater recordings that have been made using specialised microphones known as hydrophones. We also have many examples of ultrasonic recordings that showcase the use of echolocation in bats, marine mammals and a small number of birds. In addition to species recordings, we also have a large number of habitat recordings as well as a growing collection of environmental sounds such as weather and water.

Can I submit my own wildlife recordings to the British Library?
We’re always keen to hear from sound recordists interested in archiving their recordings with us. For more information on the collection and contact details please visit the wildlife and environment sounds page.