Creative Commons 3.0: by-nc-nd-sa /// MERGING METADATA: BUILDING ON EXISTING STANDARDS TO CREATE A FIELD BOOK

The Field Book Project is a cross-disciplinary project to develop an online registry for field books and other primary source materials related to biodiversity research. Led by Rusty Russell and Anne Van Camp, this project is a joint initiative of the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the National Museum of Natural History. This paper presents the metadata structure established for building the Field Book Registry. The project team is committed to involving members of the library, archives, museum, and biodiversity communities in the development of the Field Book Registry. We invite your comments and discussion regarding the work presented here. Background Field books are the primary source records of collecting events conducted for biodiversity research. In addition to the information that is typically transcribed to a specimen label, field books may also contain a wealth of other information useful to biodiversity research. Detailed notes on observations at the time of collection can provide clues about interspecies relationships. Environmental data can be used to guide habitat reconstruction and responsibl