We are very excited to announce the launch of our new expedition workflow: Filing Folder Foray.

In this new workflow we are asking you (clever citizen scientists) to transcribe the information documented on our herbarium folders. These folders store and organize the herbarium specimens that you are helping us transcribe in our main workflow. As we are in the process of digitizing the 1.5 million specimens in our herbarium, being able to include a storage location is incredibly valuable. Capturing this information will enhance the accessibility and usefulness of our collection, allowing us to find things more efficiently, while also bridging information gaps when geographic location is missing from the specimen labels.

With a maximum of three fields to fill in, and normally requiring only two, this task might seem simple, but it’s value is significant. We hope you can use this expedition as a little ‘brain break’ from some of the more technically detailed expeditions. Quick, relatively easy and tangibly satisfying, we hope your brain will feel accomplished and slightly refreshed from a job well done.

Now, please gather round while I tell you why we still need you in this here time of AI. These days it might seen like AI can do it all, but humans are still better at understanding context, dealing with ambiguity and transcribing handwriting. So, if you were ever in doubt, rest assured, we continue to be so grateful for the important and valuable work you do helping us. As we continue to try and wrangle our collection into a database, we are so glad you are here.

If you like this expedition, or have any comments or suggestions we’d love to hear from you!

— The Notes from Nature Team