Guidelines for Fieldbooks

A. General Comments

1. Should be a contemporaneous record of the day’s events and data

2. It is not a personal diary, but an official business document

3. Should be well organized and legible

4. Should include carefully drawn sketches to record many types of observations.

5. Notes should be in permanent ink or #3 pencil

B. Front Cover

1. a bound book with prenumbered, weatherproof pages

2. name of author and company, complete with address and phone number, name and location of project

C. Basic Information

1. Date

2. The primary goals of your field stop or day

3. Time the author arrived at each site or field trip stop

4. Names and affiliations of all persons at the site that day

5. Weather conditions that day

6. Basic description of all work being done that day

7. Specific description of work the author is doing that day

8. Specific data being collected

9. Any observations of occurrence out of the ordinary

10. Any times that the author was not present at the site during the day

11. Time the author left the site at day’s end

D. Other Useful Data:

1. Sketches of specific geologic stops

2. Description of the location of individual stops.