Rapid Data Entry

Supporting high-throughput digitisation workflows in EMu

Laurence Livermore1

Alex Fell2, Muhammad Nadat2, Andrew Brown2 and Ben Sullivan2

1 The Natural History Museum, London2 KE Software, an Axiell Group Company

The Digitisation Challenge

• Increased government and public expectation

• Aim to digitise 20 million specimens in 5 years

• Current CMS little provision for rapid data entry

• Need new tools to support digitisation

Solving the problem – Rapid Data Entry (RDE)

• Browser-based interface for KE EMu

• Customisable “apps”

• Support rapid data entry

• Bulk record creation

• Field validation

• Normalise and atomise data

• Project-based approach

Project-based Digitisation

• Managed by one or more “leads”

• People may be members of more than one project

• Project information stored in the collections database

• Most projects will have multiple project-specific “apps”

Project Dashboard

• Permission dependent

• Three “app” categories:

– Forms

– Editors

– Statistics

• Multiple apps support various stages/components of digitisation

Forms

• Creates new records, including label transcription

• Record sets can be filtered

• Filtered records are offered to editors/transcribers randomly

• Bulk editing and customised operations through scripts

Editors

• Global updater

• Resolve attachments

• Apply consistency

• More targeted than EMu global editor

• Also created by project lead

Statistics

• Simple reporting mechanism

• Based on record status

• Visualisation tool

– Bar chart

– Pie chart

Project Creation & Administration

• Browser-based configuration

• Can reference any backend field

• Permissions can be set per users on both projects and apps

Example Project Workflow – Botanical Sheets

Form 1 - Stub record creation from barcoded sheets

Form 2 - Transcription of localities and collectors

Editor 1 - Normalisation of localities

Editor 2 - Normalisation of collectors

Future RDE Development

• UX/UI improvements (desktop/tablets)

• Record navigation and management

• Ongoing improvements for NHM’s digital collections programme

• Support for non-digitisation activities

• Statistics and reporting

Advantages & Disadvantages

+ Apps are very flexible

+ No clientside installation required

+ Display and customisation does not (necessarily) require core client modifications

+ Steamlined field selection allows for rapid data entry

+ Digitisation occurs directly into collections database means all data are in one place from creation through to

+ Normalisation tools within collections database

+ Support for mobile/tablet devices allows novel/unanticipated workflows

+/- Apps and record sets need to be configured by a Data Manager/super user

+/- Complex normalisation (of complex data) requires desktop client

- Requires WiFi in collections areas

- Mobile/tablets less suitable for typing

- Another system and interface to support and maintain

New Workflows

• Applications outside of rapid digitisation

– Specimen relocation & loans

– Condition checking & collections audit

– Data capture from visiting scientists

– Crowdsourcing

Original photograph taken by John Cummings http://bit.ly/1vTrzvk

Acknowledgements

Management and testing:

Darrell Siebert, Annette Ure and testing staff (curators and data managers)

Software development:

Alex Fell, Muhammad Nadat, Andrew Brown and Ben Sullivan (KE Software)