Can we connect digital records such that the provenance of knowledge can be traced in order to streamline the research process? For a use case, we can look at a focused research questions that was answered in digital archives with multiple searches and expert research analysis (via Smithsonian Collections Blog)
Doris Cochran was a herpetologist who collected over 3,000 frog specimens from Brazil in her career. Her 1962-1963 travelogue documents Doris Cochran's National Science Foundation funded trip to visit museums in South America and collect frog specimens. In 2013, Smithsonian Institution created an online Transcription Center where volunteers could transcribe historic documents. One volunteer questioned whether the catalog meta-data was correct. The writer of the travelog mentioned a travel companion "Doris" -- was this book written by another scientist?
Working with archivists and researchers at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, we discovered the original NSF research proposal which mentions Mrs. Sydney Blake.
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Archivist Annie -- takes papers from Doris Cohran's office, catalogs them for the physical archives and creates digital records (Finding Aid)
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Digitizer Don -- creates digital image from the field notebook, giving it an independent digital record (ID: SIA RU007151) with reference to the collection of papers.
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Researcher Ric -- documents NSF grant proposal with reference to Mrs. Sydney Blake
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Researcher Ellen -- determines that Mrs. Sydney Blake is the "Doris" mentioned in the field notebook.