#44: Notes from the Field

Science is built on a foundation of careful observation, and recording one’s observations in great detail are important for later expansion: looking things up, continuing to expand on ideas and make linkages.

With limited memory storage and recall capacity, though, we need a little help to bring back the details from sojourns in thick forests or the bottom layers of long-forgotten cities. In addition to helping you build on what you initially capture with the five senses, you need to have good reference material when you’re ready to write up your processes and results. The clearer and more detailed the descriptions, the easier your peers can evaluate the work, possibly even replicate your findings in an attempt to confirm your conclusions. So, the level of detail is key to maintaining the level of scrutiny required of a strong scientific discipline.

An essential tool for this work, then, is the field notebook.

If you’re a reader of

Noted

, you’re perhaps already familiar with rich examples of field notes. An entire newsletter devoted to rich notebook scholarship, Jillian shares a diverse set of examples of field note diaries, such as Darwin’s copious observations in his explorations of the natural world.

Charles Darwin's Portfolios

How one goes about creating field notes is largely personal, although conservation biologist Eleanor Sterling at the American Museum of Natural History shares great tips for those just beginning field journals. I’ve also just learned about Field Notes on Science and Nature, an edited volume of beautiful field notes and artwork, and now I need it yesterday. It shares the important role physical field notes, and the act of note-making, has in the life of a scientist, and ultimately makes the case for going analog.

Carina "Wear a mask" Gsottbauer @carina_seas

Just some of the stunning #SciArt from "Field notes on science & nature":

Of course, I’m not in the field. Anything I observe - my data - is what other people think, as evidenced by the words they use and the behaviours they display and self-report. This is more aligned with how ideas are observed and documented in this week’s post in

Noted

(an especially enjoyable read).

When I was in graduate school, I used the blue hardcover chemistry lab books to record observations from research (my own and those studies reported on in journals and at conferences). I decided to revisit this technique again, devoting a lovely gifted journal I received a few weeks ago.

Recently, I was gifted this pretty notebook from a colleague. Not the sticker, though - that was my husband’s touch. He knows me so well.

As I read literature on implementation science, evaluation, and engagement, I make notes about what stood out to me, what didn’t make sense, and what I need to follow up on. Sometimes, I’ll scrapbook when I don’t want to copy tables, but will then add my own thoughts and questions around them. As to ink, I like ballpoint pens like these from Papermate for their good flow, and they don’t bleed through the lighter stock of office supplies.

I’m also a sucker for highlighters. Here I’m using the standard issue ones from Sharpie, but I prefer the colour range of Midliners for more creative expressions.

Also, I bought myself a smaller book to keep as a reference “bible” for particularly salient ideas and quotes. Over time, I can see myself transferring select material from the journal above to this one.

The Golden Girls sticker was from a random multipack off Amazon; the other two were created by a local Indigenous artist.

It’s an Artist Loft journal from a craft store, hardcover with 68lb stock. In order to prevent bleeding, I still have to have to use my ballpoint pen and have a light hand with any highlighting. It contains notes from talks I’ve been to and covers patient engagement; knowledge translation; principles of graphic and video design; equity, diversity and inclusion; and, hashtags and social media. For example, below is a page distilling key strategies from a larger table that Powell et al., 2015 share that may be helpful in implementing healthcare change from research.

I suppose one could classify it as a commonplace book: a quick reference tool that also helps me commit knowledge to memory by writing it down. Mark has a whole series about The Knowledge That Won't Fit Inside Your Head in

How About This

, ending with a notebook expo in which he shares the variety of notebooks he uses. Mark of

Technocomplex

recently shared a similar volume kept in his Garage Mahal, where he has deconstructions of car parts and poetry.

At the start is a sticky note I kept from an engagement session I did with middle school students, asking for their health care questions they wondered about and whether research could do something about it.

Drawing makes you look more carefully at your subject. As an observational tool, drawing requires that you pay attention to every detail -- even the seemingly unimportant ones…" - Jenny Keller, cited in WIRED’s Review of Field Notes of Science and Nature (2011)

Then I have more personal notebooks. This red one, adorned with a sticker I like from a local brewery by the artist Quarrelsome Yeti, is more of an art/quotes journal.

It’s also a pretty tasty craft beer!

I started these types of journals back in mid-2019 (using the 80lb paper weight from Artist’s Loft), although I’ve had more informal note keeping over the years. In it, I’ve divided it into 12 months, with 80s/90sthemed title pages. There’s no real requirement or structure, other than I fill the pages when inspired to do so. For example, January has my temperature blanket key, my 2023 list of books I’ve read, as well as an illustration of a text chain that made me laugh, and quotes from books that I want to keep.

After reading a book on meaning and time management, I went through the screen shots of pages that stuck with me, and kept four quotes for continued reflection. The doors are a nod to a fifth quote, in a way, as the book talks about making choices and having to, inevitably, close some doors in order to live fully in the one you have chosen to walk through. The opposite page has a complementary quote from the book Scars and Stars, by Jesse Thistle.

Then, to help come up with ideas for writing posts, I started writing quick snippets in this book. It’s already helping plan out ideas to explore in future posts, and in the spirit of field notes, there’s no editing.

My husband gave me this book, and my sister gave me this sticker as part of my birthday present this year.

No matter how trivial an observation or piece of information seems, write it down.
- Eleanor Sterling, American Museum of Natural History.

I actually transfer stuff I record on my phone to this, and am trying to make it a practice to use it more. Just one or two lines to remember.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my work diary, which I use in project management meetings to take notes. I’ll go through it when it’s done and move anything of note to my Bible, then store it and start a new one.

Using stickers from a local Indigenous artist. The journal was a gift for sitting on a committee at the med school.

Does this count as a field note?

It is one of my coworkers during a meeting. You can decide which one.

Finally, while I have other sketchbooks, this is probably my nicest one: a soft brown leather flipbook given to me for my birthday this year, with a pocket in the back for keepsakes in your travels.

And another sticker from the paramedic sister. LOVE a good sticker, in case it wasn’t clear before.

Rebecca Holden (

Dear Reader, I'm lost

) seems to have a similarly-sized notebook that she brings on her hikes. She also has a lovely system for organizing pantry notes, and is now beginning to incorporate her own sketches into her notes and her newsletter posts.

A view of Sussex NB from the parking lot of the 8th Hussars Arena, where I was waiting with a coffee while my husband had an appointment.

Not sure what, if anything, I’ll do with these sketches. I’ve been toying with a separate newsletter feature/section/tab devoted to my hikes/birding, so perhaps they will feature there.

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I’ve enjoyed learning from fellow Substackers about their methods to their own notetaking madness, and would love to hear from more of you. What do you use to keep track of your ideas? Is there an idea you see on the posts I’ve shared that inspires you to crack out a fresh notebook and get documenting?

Let me know in the comments below. And thanks to

Jillian Hess

,

Mark Dykeman

,

Mark R DeLong

and

Rebecca Holden

for the inspiration!

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