Marine Data Entry

The major elements in data entry have been measured in a project designed to evaluate entry technologies, entry operators, and types of data encountered in the marine environment. The major elements were data preparation, technical assistance, system preparation, production entry, and computer programming support. Data preparation efforts can take as long as production entry in many cases. The new technologies that require microcomputers have a significantly higher support component than dedicated data entry devices. The production entry rate improves on all devices with a skilled and trained entry operator. Microcomputer technologies and screen formatting techniques improve the production rates for nonskilled operators. An emerging technology of voice entry was the least productive approach but has a potential benefit in specialized situations. Entry rates stabilized to a fixed rate as the number of records increased above a minimal threshold.The division of effort was different for each operator within the categories of data preparation, keyentry program preparation, technical assistance required, and production entry. The operator with scientific training required less technical assistance than the other operators. The best entry combination was a skilled operator matched with a dedicated entry device. Computer programming support for microcomputers and emerging technologies is at least five times greater than the production rate, and the benefits to a skilled operator are minimal. The project confirmed that data can be entered directly into exchange formats from manuscripts, tables, coding forms, and log sheets without intermediate conversion steps.