Christopher Faulk, U-M School of Public Health, talks about a long-neglected problem particular to academic labs – the proper archiving of lab notebooks and the data they contain. A panel discussion discussion will follow, with several bench scientists to answer questions and share examples of lab notebooks.

Faulk starts by defining what a lab notebook is, and discusses the legal issues surrounding them. What happens when personnel leave a lab? Who has access to lab notebooks? What are the best practices for maintaining a notebook? Lab notebooks are the result of millions of research dollars spent annually, yet there is no systematic process for archival storage.

New ideas in the transition to digital notebooks are presented, as well as the reasons why many of them are impractical for the working scientist.