TITLE: Taking notes in the field
DATE: 2019-05-05
AUTHOR: John L. Godlee
====================================================================


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).

  {IMAGE}


[Here is a link to an ODK .xml and .xlsx] I created to hold
measurements on tree stems in our permanent plots, allowing the user
to record the trunk diameter, height, mortality information, GPS
location, and information on the base stem of the tree. The form
isn’t properly finished yet, and I actually ran into some problems
when I was writing the form in XLSForm syntax which has made me less
keen on this method. For example, the form is setup to repeat every
time the user wants to input data for a new stem, but this prompted
an annoying “Do you want to add another group” message that had to
be clicked through on ODK collect, which could get pretty annoying
when there’s 800 stems in a plot. Also, I wanted to have some
information auto-fill depending on the contents of the fields in the
previous stem, as often many stems on the same tree will have the
same properties, but this doesn’t seem to be possible. The most
important part of this is I want the tag number of the stem to
auto-increment by one with each repeat unless the user overrides
this manually, but this also isn’t possible it seems. At the moment
with this iteration of the form it is definitely faster to write
things in notebooks and type them up later. In the field I’m wasting
5 people’s time by using ODK, but in the lab I’m only wasting my
time by typing up the notes from the notebook. That said, I think
maybe a lot of this can be solved by refining the method with which
I record the data electronically. KoboToolBox is an alternative to
ODK (I think) that may have some of the features I desire, or maybe
I should just use a tablet with a Google Sheets/Apple Numbers app,
like the Arctic researchers in my department do it.

  [Here is a link to an ODK .xml and .xlsx]: https://johngodlee.github.io/files/field_book/seosaw_stem_data.zip

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.