Citizen Science: Public Participation in Environmental Research

(£32.99). Produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BTO’s sister organisation in the USA, this is a broad and deep treatment of the whole process of citizen science, which should be at least browsed by everyone with an interest in volunteer contributions to science. The internet has changed the way people are engaged in making observations of wildlife that become serious scientific information, and this account explores in great detail the nature of the new relationship between professionals and citizens. Using project case studies predominantly from Cornell’s own work, a range of authors look at the use of bioinformatics, the impacts of citizen science on conservation research and policy, and discuss the educational, social and behavioural aspects of citizen science – a pretty complete coverage. The BTO experience, up until five years ago, is described in a chapter by Jeremy Greenwood. 

Some of the material is complex – for example Steve Kelling explains how bioinformatics, through modelling, machine learning and visualisation techniques, is a tool for converting large-scale data into patterns that explore relationships between birds and their environment. And dealing with this complexity is really the point of this book. As technology improves our capability, it poses tough questions on how to make it work best for our professional–citizen relationship, and we all need to understand more of that complexity. As Richard Louv says in the foreword, “Citizen scientists gather more than data. They gather meaning.” And this book certainly explains how we can better recognise and present that meaning.