Computerisation of Records

By John Partridge

These are the statistics on the Records which are held in the Main Database at Lower Smite Farm. In addition to these we hold over 130,000 flora records from before the start of the present Worcestershire Flora Project, and over 13,000 Fungi records for which the entry has still to be completed.

And we can also see the years from which these records come:

Our thanks go to the team of in-putters who have spent many hours getting these records off the card system and into the computer. You will notice some obvious gaps: there are few mammals because these are still being entered and checked - most of the mammals entered on the computer are from this year's records and the new Mammal Recording Scheme. There are very few birds, lichens, mosses and liverworts because the computerisation of these records has yet to start in any quantity although there are many records on cards.

Volunteers Wanted

Which brings me to my next point - if you are interested in birds and have a computer running Windows, would YOU be prepared to help us to get the records onto the database? You do not have to understand the database that we use, because Martyn Hodgson has written an excellent program to simplify the process of transferring the records from the cards, and we can provide some initial training. We would prefer to do this with no obligation on either side to continue, so that you can drop out if you find it too onerous, and we can call a halt if you error rate is too high! Your entries will be checked by someone else, and corrected, but if too many are wrong it can be quicker to repeat the whole process!

There may be scope for helping with mosses - I already have one offer - and lichens - but here we are awaiting the arrival of a special program from the British Lichen Society so that they can use the records as well.