Unless you have written on the paper using cursive script. Many schools
in the US have stopped teaching longhand reading/writing so in a generation
or two many paper records will be undecipherable to all but historians. My
wife has some handwritten letters from ancestors written in German around
1920 that even Germans have great trouble reading today.
The paper is holding up quite well though. ;-)
Dale Tronrud
On 01/26/12 08:30, Phoebe Rice wrote:
> As the proud owner of a carefully organized, highly annotated VMS backup tape (reel-to-reel, of course), my main concern is that paper is the only format that we'll be able to count on reading a decade (or more) from now.
>
> =====================================
> Phoebe A. Rice
> Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
> The University of Chicago
> phone 773 834 1723
> http://bmb.bsd.uchicago.edu/Faculty_and_Research/01_Faculty/01_Faculty_Alphabetically.php?faculty_id=123
> http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2008/9780854042722.asp
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:50:04 +0100
>> From: CCP4 bulletin board <[log in to unmask]> (on behalf of Anastassis Perrakis <[log in to unmask]>)
>> Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Introducing an ELN
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> I think that all these points are interesting and
>> valid.
>> On Jan 25, 2012, at 10:37, Chris Morris wrote:
>>
>> Tassos reports:
>>
>> 1. None of the twenty test-users was satisfied
>> with any of the two
>>
>> solutions - and each was annoyed for a different
>> reason.
>>
>> This suggests that the choice of ELN is not the
>> most difficult part of the adoption process. Maybe
>> the test users at the NKI were annoyed by the idea
>> of using an ELN at all.
>>
>> That would surely apply to some users. Some were
>> actually very keen, and thats why they signed up for
>> it.
>>
>> In my experience, the hardest part is ensuring
>> that it provides benefits to the people who have
>> to enter the data, and provides them early. The
>> fact that it will make information retrieval
>> easier in three years is not enough.
>>
>> I suggest focussing on electronic support for
>> housekeeping: booking time on an instrument,
>> finding the files the instrument created, ordering
>> oligos, recording when you use the last of a
>> reagent. Scientists work very independently in
>> most respects, but they do have certain
>> obligations that flow from sharing the lab space.
>> You can make use of these to encourage compliance
>> with the ELN. If you do, then most of the science
>> will get recorded in passing.
>>
>> I think that this was exactly one of the problems.
>> The ELNs we tested had no option for booking
>> instruments, no way to find files from instruments
>> let alone read them (it would support only TIF,
>> JPEG, Doc, XLS, PDF), and would not do stock
>> keeping: all these are thought to be out of the ELN
>> scope. And that makes an ELN inherently less useful.
>> Lack of instrument support is another issue: a
>> machine that would allow us to import real
>> chromatograms to ELN would be cool - alas, the
>> solution that was suggested to us is to save as PDF
>> or XLS and reload ...! (it took 3 weeks to come back
>> with this great plan!)
>> For the rest I have nothing much to say, I basically
>> agree.
>> A.
>>
>> I suggest also ensuring that it includes
>> electronic tools that actually help. Two examples
>> from PiMS are primer design, and automatically
>> uploading and interpreting results from the
>> Caliper GX instrument.
>>
>> It must allow round trips with spreadsheets, i.e.
>> dump ELN data as a spreadsheet, edit it, upload it
>> again. Despite their substantial disadvantages,
>> some scientists will not give them up. It should
>> also allow crossreferencing with paper note books.
>> Some will continue to use a lab notebook. When
>> they discover that the ELN serves as a searchable
>> index to it, they will warm to the ELN.
>>
>> I suggest aiming for "no paper" at your lab
>> progress meetings within say 12 months. When you
>> reach that point, everything important is in the
>> ELN. Before then, the ELN is not giving real
>> value.
>>
>> You will need someone who is keen on the
>> introduction of the ELN, to customise it, provide
>> first line user support, and act as a single point
>> of contact with the supplier. This might be a
>> scientist or an IT person. I have also seen this
>> done well by a technician, Delphine Chesnel when
>> she was at the EMBL Hamburg. If you can't find
>> such a "champion", then introduction will not be
>> successful.
>>
>> Some of the problem here is an "own goal" by the
>> community: scientists are trained to use paper
>> during their degrees, so ELNs are a controversial
>> change of practice. One person who, unusually,
>> began with an ELN told me how inconvenient it is
>> now she works in a paper-based lab.
>>
>> PepTalk 2012 had a workshop on this topic. The
>> recording and notes are here:
>> http://www.structuralbiology.eu/support/forums/networks/pims/why-dont-scientists-use-limselns
>>
>> regards,
>> Chris
>> ____________________________________________
>> Chris Morris
>> [log in to unmask]
>> Tel: +44 (0)1925 603689 Fax: +44 (0)1925 603634
>> Mobile: 07921-717915
>> Skype: chrishgmorris
>> http://pims.structuralbiology.eu/
>> http://www.citeulike.org/blog/chrishmorris
>> Daresbury Lab, Daresbury, Warrington, UK, WA4
>> 4AD
>>
>>
>> P please don't print this e-mail unless you really
>> need to
>> Anastassis (Tassos) Perrakis, Principal Investigator
>> / Staff Member
>> Department of Biochemistry (B8)
>> Netherlands Cancer Institute,
>> Dept. B8, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
>> Tel: +31 20 512 1951 Fax: +31 20 512 1954 Mobile /
>> SMS: +31 6 28 597791
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