New Methodology
Recently on Tuesday, April 12, 2016, a group of colleagues and I went to the Whitneyville Cemetery, in Charleston Township, Pennsylvania to test a new method of field data collection. This was the first true field test of a methodology designed to limit field time, while maximizing efficiency in the field.
The previous method of field collection, was tedious and very time consuming and fairly inefficient in use. It required collection of the entire data set for each marker, burial, kinship, and veteran records at the marker site. The results of this was slow data collection in the field, resulting in longer periods of time needed for field collection. During a previous test using this method at the Whitneyville Cemetery there was a limited number of graves that data was able to be collected for. One of the biggest limits to the data collection was the battery life of everyone's phone.
The new methodology we are using and tested was to collect only the marker location, and very minimal data about the marker, then attach a picture. This expedites the field data collection, allowing a greater number of records to be collected per battery life cycle of the collectors phone. This also allows the data for each cemetery to be collected in a much timelier manner. Using this new method we were able to nearly complete the Whitneyville Cemetery. This picture shows the amount of work completed as a result of the new method.
Approximately 80% of the records collected shown here were collected in about one hour with five people collecting records. We worked on collection of the data until everyone's phones were nearly dead. I should note however, that the records are not complete and will require further updating in the computer lab from the photos attached to each record. The photos are where the information will come from to update the burial, kinship, and veterans records.
Results from testing this method were consistent with expectations. We greatly decreased the amount of time needed to collect data in the field. This new method will improve the efficiency of data collection and allow for increased efficiency in the project.
