After a £19m redevelopment project, Weston Park Museum in Sheffield opened on 14th October 2006. One of the new interactive tools available to visitors to the museum is a 'Nature Notebook'. This is an ongoing project that encourages both children and adults to enter observation records which are then fed in to the Sheffield Biological Record Centre database at Weston Park.
Nature Notebook is based upon Recorder, biological recording software designed by Dorset Software for the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) to exploit the potential of a nationwide network of biodiversity data. Recorder enables the recording of field data in an electronic format.
Dorset Software worked closely with management at Weston Park Museum to explore how the idea of biological recording could be extended to the general public. The result is Nature Notebook.
Nature Notebook, which was developed by Dorset Software, utilises the latest technology to allow museum visitors to record their nature observations and the location via a user-friendly interface. Nature Notebook encourages children and adults to discover natural history on their doorsteps, use new technology to record the results and become part of the wider biological recording community.
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