Quick guide to indexing your nature data
So — you are committed to making a regular practice of studying nature by recording what you observe in your field notebooks and nature journals.
Now what? What is the next step?
For me, it meant making my data more accessible in the future, so I could find notes and observations from months or even years ago. But how to do that, without just flipping through every page of every journal to find what you need?
I've developed a simple indexing system using little Field Notes Brand notebooks and notations for key species, nature phenomena, and places that works well for me.
I have 36+ years of field notebooks and nature journals and it's great to be able to look up things in the past, as I'm studying something. I am also starting to note and track climate change.
This is one of the most important things we do as naturalist—to study, question, and answer things about nature, over time!
PAGE NUMBERING [SEE PHOTO ABOVE]: I number each of my pages starting with #1 for the first of the year. Since I use a refillable journal, I can have as many pages as I need for the year. If you use bound journals, just make sure each is labeled on the first page with the year and “Volume ___ of ___” leaving the last space blank until the end of the year. I always date every entry and have the metadata, too.
ENTER YOUR DATA REGULARLY: About once a month I transfer major entry subjects into the index, it doesn't take long. As you can see each page is a letter, for subjects or phenomena. You can also include places, though I separate my notebook into species/phenomena in the first half and places in the second half.
The entries are simple. Using "senita" on upper right as example: p49 01/19 means page 49, January 19th. Since each notebook is a single year, I don't need to put that. This is 2020. [If I have bound journals, I would just note V1 for volume 1 or V2 for volume 2 for that year.
KEEP YOUR INDEXES HANDY FOR REFERENCE: When looking for a subject—say White-crowned Sparrows—I can browse the yearly indexes for Sparrow, White-crowned. Yes I have to look at each year, but it beats having to thumb through every journal pageI
So I can go back, for example, and see when White-crowns arrive and leave each year . . . is it earlier or later? What is the trend?
