Transcription

The transcription spreadsheet

The generic transcription template is always evolving, but is becoming stabilized.

• Tabs: There are (at least) three tabs: data entry, upload (locked), and README. Please check the README tab before using the sheet.
• Color: Red columns are informational questions, not data fields. Fill these in if not pre-populated. Green columns are controlled vocabulary; values of agent, species, higher geography must be checked in Arctos before entering in this sheet
• Optional fields: Even if you are filling in all sections of the sheet, some fields are optional, indicated by “(opt)” in the header.

There are several sections, divided by solid lines:

Informational

• notes: If you have any questions, enter them here. Use this field also for additional notes.

Identifiers

• accession: leave blank is not pre-popuated
• ALAAC: ALA accession number. Pre-populated
• barcode: ALA barcode, beginning with ‘H’. Sometimes pre-populated
• arctos_guid: Arctos GUID. Blank if records not yet uploaded. If not blank, the online record can be found by prefixing the GUID with https://arctos.database.museum/guid/

Collectors

• collector’s code: The collector’s number for the collection. Often these a simply an integer (a person’s lifetime serial number), sometimes a integer preceded by a year (‘2023-12’ or ‘05-100’), sometimes an integer with a prefix code (‘xm-234’). If the collector code is a person’s serial number, but that person is not the first collector, add the person’s family name before the collector’s code (e.g., “Crum 23320”), otherwise just write the code.
• collector 1: The name of the first collector as found in the Arctos agent search. If the person is not found in Arctos, or you are unsure, add a * after the name, and a comment in the notes field
• collector 2 ...: second, third, fourth collectors. If there are more than three collectors, add additional collectors in the ‘notes’ field.
• verbatim date: The date for the collection as written on the label.
• began date: The date of collection in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• ended date: The end of a range of dates, or just the same as the began date.

Specimen description

• Any notes present on the plant (e.g., “petals pale blue”)

Taxonomy

Some specimens have annotation labels stuck on them, with an updated name. We want to always enter the newest name as the first ID. This may be either on an annotation label, or may be the main label. If there is an older name, add as species 2, etc.

• species: The name as found in the Arctos taxonomy search; add a “*” after the name if it is not found or if you are not sure. Add some notes in the notes field if needed.
• det by: The name of the identifier or ‘determiner’, the person who gave the name to the specimen. Sometimes written after “Det.” Enter name as found in the Arctos agent search, or add a “*” after the name if not found. Enter nothing if there is no info on determiner.
• det by date: The date of the identification, if given. Use ISO format dates: YYYY-MM-DD, or for no day YYYY-MM, or no month just use YYYY. Leave blank if there is no info.

Location info

• higher geography: The finest resolution for the name of a geographic area, as found in the Arctos Places and Events search. Select ‘Geography’ in the initial dropdown, then select ‘Assertable geography’ = yes. Copy the text (in black font) in the second column (e.g., “Russia, Irkutsk”). Please make sure you are not pasting addition spaces or tabs into the field.
• verbatim locality: The verbatim text of the locality on the specimen
• specific locality: Changed and amended text to make the locality description better. See Arctos tips on writing good locality descriptions. Note: “Specific Locality should start with the most specific part of the locality and end with the most general.” This is the opposite of the system used in Higher Geography. Do not include information already in ‘higher geography’. Remove any habitat information that is not integral to refinding a place, and enter it in the habitat field.
• habitat: The exact transcription of any habitat information on a label. Often the locality description contains some habitat information. Do not duplicate any habitat information that occurs as part of the final specific locality.
• georef source: If the longitude and latitude are on the label, choose ‘on label’, if you did the georeferencing yourself, choose ‘by you’. Only do georeferencing if you have been asked to.
• verbatim latitude: as written on the label (if it’s there)
• verbatim longitude: as written on the label (if it’s there)
• latitude d.ddd: The latitude in decimal degrees. Do not use more than five decimal places: 0.016 degrees is one nautical mile (= 1 minute of latitude), and 0.00001 degrees is approx. one meter. GPS accuracy is seldom better than 10 meters, or 0.0001 degrees. Convert the coordinates from degree, minutes, seconds to decimal degrees using online tools (FCC, NOAA), or calculate yourself (DD = D + M/60 + S/3600).
• longitude d.ddd: The longitude in decimal degrees. Pay attention to the sign; Alaska has a negative longitude.
• max error (m): If you are georeferencing the specimen, give your estimate of accuracy, in meters. If the coordinates were on the label, and the error was not given, leave blank.
• datum: If given on the label. Else leave blank.
• min elev (m): The minimum elevation in meters. If the elevation on the label was given in feet, convert to meters (1 ft = 0.3048 m).
• max elev (m): The max elevation in meters, if a range is given. If no range is given, enter the same value here as in the previous field.

The transcription process

If transcribing from a spreadsheet prepopulated with GUIDs:

• Open the spreadsheet
• Click on the GUID
• View the Arctos record, and open the image of the label, confirming that some transcription is needed. Fill in the questions in red (if you have been asked to).
• Enter only the data sections (above) that are missing.
• NOTE: if the collectors are correct, except that there is an ‘unknown’ in the position of first collector, please fill in all collectors - the whole collector set will be overwritten.