TITLE: Taking notes in the field
DATE: 2019-05-05
AUTHOR: John L. Godlee
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On fieldwork I like to opt for waterproof notebooks to record 
measurements. I prefer the flexibility of being able to construct 
tables as I see fit and I think it leads to less wasted paper than 
if I used pre-printed data table sheets and a clipboard. 
Specifically I use Rite in the Rain hardback lined notebooks (No. 
390) which I think are a good size and are very robust, it's just a 
shame they cost about GBP15 each.

The main issue I have with using notebooks, or rather using paper 
based note-taking in general is that at the end of the fieldwork 
there is a lot of copying up the data, days and days and days of 
it. In some ways this is good as it allows you to get a first look 
at any errors that might have been made, but at the same time more 
errors may be introduced through the copying process, which can be 
extremely mind-numbing.

Additionally, writing freehand in notebooks or onto printed paper 
forms can be quite messy, especially when it is sweaty or wet in 
the field.

When I attended a course in plant taxonomy at Kew Gardens last year 
I got talking to another researcher who worked at Kew and did lots 
of expeditions collecting plant specimens. They have to collect 
various information about the location and habit of the plant they 
are collecting and they had opted to take notes directly onto their 
Android smartphone using a combination of Locus Maps and ODK (Open 
Data Kit).

  ![ODK 
screenshot](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/field_book/odk_scrot.png
)

Here is a link to an ODK .xml and .xlsx

Another issue that people often state as a reason for not using 
tablets/smartphones is obviously that they need charging, and what 
happens if they run out of charge. However, at nearly all the 
fieldsites I've worked at, even pretty remote ones, we've had 
access to a generator which can be used for charging every night. 
Battery packs can also be brought as a backup for charging in the 
field or when the generator inevitably breaks, so I don't see this 
as a real problem. Additionally, it is important to make sure that 
the device is waterproof, otherwise you have to stop work when it 
rains. This can be achieved with various phone cases, but I'm 
skeptical of phone cases in general, as so many of them are of such 
atrocious build quality.