Snail Scribe Archive

General Project Information

1. Where are these records from?
These records are from ledgers in the Field Museum's Invertebrate Zoology Collection. They are the original recorded data from the museum's collection. These ledgers document the collection's specimen information, where the specimen was found, and how it was acquired. These handwritten records are currently only available in their original format, severely limiting access to this data -- we seek to change that through this project!

2. Will these records be shared with the public?
YES! The primary goal of this project is to make Field Museum specimens and their metadata more accessible to the public. Specifically, data will be hosted on the Field Museum's website as well as uploaded to biodiversity repositories such as GBIF and InvertEBase.

3. What can researchers learn from this information?
Transcription of these data is critical as it increases the use and accessibility of our collection, which in turn fosters new discoveries in natural history, conservation, as well as resources for medicine and agriculture. Anyone with an internet connection can access these biodiversity records around the world, preserving the physical specimen and accelerating data-driven research and education.

Project Workflow and Guidelines

1. What if I make a mistake?
The Back and Next buttons allow you to change your answers, until you select Done. The each page in this project will be transcribed by different contributors, this allows us to compare entries and merge versions for completeness and accuracy.

2. How do I decipher some of these scientific names?
We know most people are not familiar with the scientific names for mollusks, which might make these ledgers more difficult to decipher. We recommend searching MolluscaBase with your best guess of the text to help identify hard to read items.

3. Can I do this project on my smartphone?
Portions of this project may be able to be completed on a smartphone, however due to the nature of the ledgers and small screen sizes of smartphones, we recommend working on this project with a laptop, desktop, or larger tablet computer for easiest navigation.

4. What does verbatim transcription mean?
In general, this project is seeking the verbatim entry for each data field, meaning transcribe the data exactly as it is written, including case-sensitive letters. However, there are some exceptions to this rule:
-Ignore words that are crossed off and do not transcribe them.
-Ignore line breaks. Some data fields have long handwritten notes that span multiple lines within a data cell. There is no need to hit 'enter' to record these line breaks and everything can be typed in a single line.
-Ignore font changes including italics, bold, underlined text, etc.

5. Do I have to use the marker tool?
No! The marker tool, a box user's can adjust to highlight the data they are transcribing, is completely optional and we will not be collecting information from user's placement of this box or whether or not they use it.

Specific Data Entry Issues

1. How should unclear or faint markings be handled?
If markings are faint or unclear, volunteers should use their best judgment to transcribe the value as accurately as possible. If the text is still ambiguous, mark the entry as "unclear" or add a comment using the "Talk" feature to flag the issue. Transcribers are welcome to use the 'unclear' button in addition to transcribing partial data entries but often educated guesswork is more valuable data than the just using the 'unclear button.

2. What if an entry or part of an entry is crossed out?
If there is a term or item of data that is crossed out, do not include it in your transcription. Simply transcribe the remaining text.

3. What if a field is blank?
If a field is blank on the ledger, then leave the transcription field blank.

4. What do I do if there is an obvious spelling error or typo in the document?
You should transcribe the error as it appears on the original document. We will correct or remove the value in a future step.

5. What if a field contains a ? or " ?
Transcribe these marks as written.

6. How do I incorporate text with accent marks or other diacritics?
You may either use keyboard shortcuts or you can copy and paste the correct character from https://www.accentletters.com/

7. Are some of these records already digitized/databased at the Field Museum?
Yes! Because there are 20 records(rows) per ledger page, it is not uncommon for some of these records/rows to already exist in Field Museum's database. However, transcribed data of already digitized records are still very valuable as they are being used to verify existing data!

Community Participation and Feedback

1. How can volunteers share suggestions or feedback?
Volunteers can use the comment sections or contact project coordinators directly.

2. Are there opportunities to collaborate with experts or students?
YES! This project collaborates with museum professionals, malacologists (someone who studies mollusks) and other experts. Volunteers interested in specific roles (such as post-transcription data cleaning or moderating the 'Talk' board should reach out to coordinators for more information (see contact information below).

More feedback? Have an idea? Feel free to contact the project team with questions on this project's 'Talk' board:
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/skeogh17/snail-scribe-archive/talk
or email us directly at keogh026 'at' umn.edu or skeogh 'at' fieldmuseum.org.