Hi Alan – I’m curious to know more about “some museums are very particular
about the conditions under which you can see and use the original material.”
Do you have any personal experience with that?
Thanks
Rob
--
Robert C. Faucett
Collections Manager
Ornithology
Burke Museum
Box 353010
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-3010
Office: 206-543-1668
Cell: 206-619-5569
Fax: 206-685-3039
rfaucett@xxxxxx<mailto:rfaucett@xxxxxx>
www.washington.edu/burkemuseum<http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum>
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/collections/ornithology/index.php
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/collections/genetic/index.php
From: <obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Alan Contreras
<acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: "acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx" <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, May 4, 2020 at 8:58 AM
To: "springazure1@xxxxxxxxx" <springazure1@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "shawneenfinnegan@xxxxxxxxx" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [obol] Re: historical bird data
Traditionally, observers donated their personal journals and specimen
collection records to a museum that agreed to retain the material. Researchers
interested in the work of a person or a region would have to either visit that
museum or arrange for material to be loaned or copied. In general you get far
more information from a good field journal, but it’s more work to dig up the
material. Also, some museums are very particular about the conditions under
which you can see and use the original material.
Some of this material does get published eventually, for example Noah
Strycker’s annotated set of field notes from 100 years ago in SE Oregon by
Edward Preble. Range Bayer has done some similar work, as have others.
There is no single site for such material. In the west, the place with the
largest number of journals is probably the Western Foundation for Vertebrate
Zoology in southern California. OSU, UO and SOU museums all hold some early
bird records in journal form.
These days the main issue is that very few people keep organized written
records that could be donated anywhere. I think this is a big mistake but it
is what it is. My own records are very patchy. There is quite a bit from the
1970s and 1980s and not much since. However, I recently downloaded all of my
eBird records and made a paper backup copy.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>
Eugene, Oregon
www.alanlcontreras.com<http://www.alanlcontreras.com>
On May 4, 2020, at 8:47 AM, Mary Garrard
<springazure1@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:springazure1@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi, I get the OBOL digest and I don’t always read it right away, so I’m late to
the discussion about eBird and handwritten bird data.
Is there a repository for such data, aside from eBird, which involves such
tedious work to enter (enjoyable though it may be to some)? I mean the actual
physical lists. It would be sad to lose the data that spans decades of
observations, and it would also be sad to lose the evidence of the hand of the
people who have so carefully made and documented those observations.
Anyone know if there is such a thing?
Happy migration!
Mary
