Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
with totally waterproof paper; these are excellent in areas
where the weather is particularly wet or that involve working
close to water, for instance on a foreshore or in river sections
where the chances of the notebook getting wet are high.
•
Position of the hinge
:
Some notebooks hinge along the top
edge whereas others hinge along the right-hand edge. This
is worth considering in conjunction with whether you are
right or left handed.
2
2.9 The laptop, netbook or PDA as
a notebook
Small computer laptops, electronic notebooks and Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs) can be used in the fi eld to record fi eld
data. Some companies and government institutions are now
using these quite extensively for specifi c fi eld assignments. A
number of factors need to be taken into account when choosing
whether or not to use an electronic or hardcopy system and
indeed what type of electronic system to use. In order of
relative importance these are:
1. Is the system practical and built ruggedly enough to work
reliably under the particular fi eld conditions you will be
working in? Do you have a backup system in place where
you can download data each day? If you do not have this,
using an electronic notebook is a high-risk strategy because
you may easily lose your valuable data.
2. Is the electronic notebook suited to the type of data you
wish to collect and how the data will be used? For
instance, if the data need to be shared by many people, or
input into a Geographical Information System (GIS)
database, an electronic notebook is more effi cient and
suitable than a hardcopy notebook. If, however, you are
completing lots of drawings of cliff faces and features in
the rocks (Section 4.3) an electronic notebook is probably
not the most effi cient or fl exible method and a
conventional notebook is probably much better.
3. Do you have a ready power supply for recharging the
batteries? This could be anything from a household power
supply, to vehicle batteries, portable generators and
portable solar panels.
4. Can you read the screen easily even in bright sunlight?
5. Do you have appropriate software for the range of data that
needs to be collected?
6. Will the equipment work fully under the ambient
temperature and humidity of the fi eld area? (Low
temperatures and high humidity can be problematic.)
