Notes from Nature - MI-Bug

Below are answers for some commonly-asked questions from volunteers. If you think we should add something to this list, please post it in the Talk page.

Why is there a letter/roman numeral in the date?
Roman numerals are commonly used to distinguish/represent the month in a date. This is done because it can often be confusing as to order the day/month is written. Depending on where a collector grew up, where they learned to collect, or simply what country they are collecting in at the time, some people write dates as mm/dd/yy, while others write it as dd/mm/yy. Using a roman numeral as the month eliminates this potential confusion. If present, the roman numeral is always the month.

How should I deal with special characters like accents, degrees, or others?
Please use the closest English keyboard characters available for accent marks. For example, À = A, Ĥ = H, Ø = O, Ü = U, and ŧ = t. Please ignore geographical coordinates for the current expedition (latitude and longitude), which may have degree symbols. We will address this part of the labels at a later point in time.

Should I transcribe elevation/altitude information?
Please put this in the locality box as it appears with the rest of the location.

Should I transcribe latitude and longitude information?
We are not currently collecting that part of the data, just the written parts of the collection location. We are collecting elevation/altitude though. Please put elevation/altitude in the locality box as it appears with the rest of the location.

What is this random number(s) on the label?
If there is a random number on the label that isn’t part of the date and is unclear what it is, there is a good chance this a field number, site number, or collection number. It could also refer to a page number in a field notebook or some other meaning that the original collector thought meaningful. If it is alongside the location information, please include it in the locality box. If it is clearly separated from the rest of the location data or oddly segregated, you can just ignore it for now. It will be a mystery for another day…

What if some of the information asked for is missing?
If something is missing and not on the label, you can skip the box that asked for that particular part.

Do I need to re-enter information if it is in another box?
No. If you already entered information in another box, you do not need to retype it. For example, if you already filled out the Country and/or State box, you do not need to re-type the Country and/or State in the Locality box. Just enter any information in the Locality box that is not represented in one of the other boxes.

Should I correct typos, misspellings or outdated geographic location names?
Yes and no. Please correct the names used in the Country, State/Province, County, and City/Town boxes if possible. For the Locality box, please enter the information verbatim (exactly as it appears on the label) typos and all. Because this information can be highly variable and contain lots of abbreviations, typos, and outdated or “local names”, it can be very difficult to correctly figure out what the collector meant. Because of this, it is important that the locality field be filled out verbatim which is much better than accidently guessing the wrong detailed locality - despite being counter intuitive.

The final dataset (produced by you, our wonderful volunteers) is actually run through a computer program that searches for exact or very similar data entry matches. Each record is viewed by volunteers 3 times, if the data entered is very different each time it was transcribed it gets flagged and the project team has to go through each entry flagged to try and figure out why it didn’t match. This will increase the time it takes for the information to get into the database. If however, everyone enters exactly the same thing, even if it's misspelled or outdated, the final dataset is much easier for our team to deal with and get into the database. The Museum does keep a record of the typos/misspellings/outdated names in the database as well as the correct/current name. If you have additional knowledge about the locality, took time to research it, or just want to point out the typos, please feel free to share this information on MI-Bug Talk.

What do I put in the STATE/PROVINCE field?
This can be a bit different depending on where the information is from:
US/Canada = State or Province (Prov.)
Africa = Region or Province (Prov.)
Latin America = Department (Dept.)
If you have other common relative equivalencies, please let us know and we will add to the list.

What do I put in the COUNTY field?
This can be a bit different depending on where the information is from:
US = County (Co.)
Latin America = Province (Prov.)
If you have other common relative equivalencies, please let us know and we will add to the list.

What do I put in the CITY/TOWN field?
Any region smaller than what might fit in the county field. This could be a town, city, or other municipality.

What do I put in the LOCALITY field?
Any very specific location information that does not fit in the other geographic boxes. This could be something like “8 mi. SE Detroit” or “right side of Pontiac trail in grass”. You do not need to re-enter any information that you already transcribed in the other boxes.