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, London
2 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)