A few years ago, I reported that Museums Sheffield & Dorset Software had developed a user friendly front end to Recorder called Nature Notebook.  This software, developed for use in a museum gallery, uses pictures to help people identify some of the things they have seen.  The software has been very succesful in engaging with members of the public and making them aware of the extremely active biological recording community in Sheffield.  It has also added several thousand records to our database.  The software and a comprehensive guide to setting it up are freely available from Museums Sheffield.

We are now applying for a new grant to take Nature Notebook to the next level, making it web compatible, simpler to set up and more useful to specialists (e.g. amateur & professional biological recorders).  We're very keen to make "Nature Notebook 2" as useful as possible to all concerned, but don't wish to reinvent any wheels.  We'd prefer to add our cash (and our nature notebook code if helpful) to a development that is already partially underway than to go it alone and duplicate something that someone has already done.  On that basis, if anyone out there is involved with a project along similar lines - i.e. making biological recording accessible to all - I'd be very happy to hear from you.

Thanks,

Alistair McLean
Curator of Natural History
Weston Park Museum
Sheffield

Tel: 0114 2782648
E-Mail: alistair.mclean@museums-sheffield.org.uk