BSBI DDb message board

One of the most important roles of a vice county recorder is validation and verification of records. This includes checking that dates are valid and sites, grid references and vice-counties are consistent (validation); that the records are taxonomically accurate and as complete as possible (verification). This important quality check is what makes our data a trusted source of botanical information. And it is critical to the BSBI’s reputation as purveyor of quality records to the conservation and scientific communities.

This document introduces VC Recorders to managing their data on the DDb, which is not as scary as it might first appear to be! It includes a list of Frequently Asked data validation Questions. Take a look and then check data in your VC using the More Options>Validation choices. The key thing to remember is that if the data to be corrected has come from MapMate - then it must be corrected in MapMate and then the correction sync'ed through to the Hub/ DDb.

The Guidance was drafted by Quentin Groom with help from Tom Humphrey and me.

We'd welcome any comments & queries. Or ideas for further FAQs!

Jim McIntosh
BSBI Scottish Officer

By default, maps show and queries return, records which are Accepted, Unclassified or Need Verification. It is worth being aware that Unclassified and Needs Verification are different categories. Adding 'validation state' to a query (via 'more options') is very useful when validating / verifying records. But, records tagged as 'unclassified' are not returned when 'needs validation' is the selected query criterion. In the whole DDb 26% of records are currently 'unclassified' cf 35% which 'need verification'.

To check which validation states apply to records in a vice-county, and how many records are in each category, run this query, changing the vc to the one of your choice:

http://bsbidb.org.uk/search.php#query=d ... edd41fdab2


Andy.