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)