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Digital Archives: Light at the end of the tunnel?

Digital Archives: Light at the end of the tunnel?. FAME: Trouble in Store York, 1 st July 2011. Digital Archiving for the Historic Environment in England. Survey of archaeological collecting areas 2002/3 (SMA) Some large gaps in archaeological provision in different parts of England

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Digital Archives: Light at the end of the tunnel?

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  1. Digital Archives: Light at the end of the tunnel? FAME: Trouble in Store York, 1st July 2011 http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  2. Digital Archiving for the Historic Environment in England • Survey of archaeological collecting areas 2002/3 (SMA) • Some large gaps in archaeological provision in different parts of England • Even larger gaps in provision of digital archiving facilities • Since that time provision has not improved http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  3. Digital Archiving for the Historic Environment in England • Not much solid evidence about current provision • Looking at ‘Securing a future for Maritime Archaeological Archives’ 2009/10 the situation hasn’t improved • http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/maritime_archive_2009/ http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  4. Recent trends in digital archiving with the ADS • Continuing work with AHRC grant holders • Projects getting used to including ADS fees • Working with English Heritage • ALSF • Digital Storage Grants http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  5. Working with English Heritage - ALSF • Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  6. Working with English Heritage – Storage Grants • English Heritage grant to cover the deposit of data sets create during EH funded projects. http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  7. So what is stopping other types of deposit?….. Money… and… a level playing field http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  8. So where’s the light at the end of the tunnel? • Wessex Image Archive • Work with Southampton • Arts and Heritage http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  9. Wessex Image Archive Pilot • Wessex wish to move away from the use of traditional film/print photography and commit to digital images only as a method of recording. • The museums had been reluctant to make this move as they didn’t feel confident about their ability to archive the digital images. • Use of OASIS as an ‘image delivery system’. http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  10. Wessex Image Archive Pilot A new OASIS button! How do they do it? http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  11. Wessex Image Archive PilotMuseum Involvement The museum also sees the record and the images within the system http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  12. Wessex Image Archive PilotMuseum view of OASIS http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  13. Wessex Image Archive PilotMuseum view of OASIS • Clicking to see the • images within OASIS • Same download • options as HERs • Plans to create • MODES XML http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  14. Wessex Image Archive Pilotfront end of the archive The front end reflects the whole collection, with recognition of the museum services involved http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  15. Wessex Image Archive PilotArchive content Summary culled from the OASIS form Image metadata uploaded with the images Site details culled from OASIS form http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  16. Wessex Image Archive PilotArchive content Images available to download and report linked to the Grey Literature Library http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  17. Southampton Arts and Heritage Archive • Inclusion of use of the ADS as a digital archive required in terms of deposit with Southampton Museum • Costed by number of files per site • Preference for associated OASIS record • Files delivered in the ‘traditional way’ (CD) rather than an online upload http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  18. Southampton Arts and Heritage Archive Three sites currently, three more on the books http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  19. Southampton Arts and Heritage Archive The site archives Again the site information is culled from the OASIS record http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  20. Southampton Arts and Heritage Archive The site archives A wider range of file types and data, but still with links to the report in the Grey Literature Library http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  21. Light at the end of the tunnel? • What works in the image trial: • The reuse of OASIS as archive metadata • Streamlining of ingest keeps costs down • Enthusiasm from the museum sector • Potential development of OASIS MODES XML • Dissemination of image archive online • For Wessex the first step in moving towards solely digital images http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  22. Light at the end of the tunnel? • What didn’t work so well in the image trial: • Review of data input to OASIS • Image metadata requirement may be different for online use • Size of ZIP files and uploading issues http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  23. Light at the end of the tunnel? • What works in the Southampton trial: • Well formed archives • Well formed metadata from OASIS • Good range of data types within the site archives • Bringing together site archives for one region has good reuse and research potential • Good online resource for Southampton to link to http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  24. Light at the end of the tunnel? • What didn’t work so well in the Southampton trial: • The use of OASIS isn’t a Southampton HER requirement (the HER is separate from the museum service) • Yet to do: give Southampton Museums access to OASIS http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  25. The big question…How much does this all cost? • Still in trail period and subject to an annual review • For the images via OASIS: £40+VAT per site, batches of 5 sites, limit on number of images • For museum site archives: prices in bands starting at £250 + VAT for 1 -100 and increasing in stages http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  26. Light at the end of the tunnel? (or is that an oncoming train?) • Potential to work well if: • The cost is sufficiently low to resolve an archiving or working practice headache for individual units and/or… • The curators stipulate digital archive requirements within briefs, creating a level playing field and… • Price levels are kept as reasonable as possible in comparison to cost of works, while still covering the real cost of digital archiving. http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  27. Light at the end of the tunnel?Next steps • Work with both the museums and HER community to specify digital archive deposit. • Look for more cost efficiencies in archiving to keep costs low • Models for semi-automated ingest • Ingest of well formed archives • High volume small scale archives http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

  28. Thanks to… Colleagues at Wessex Archaeology , the historic environment services of Wiltshire County Council, Hampshire County Council, Hampshire Museum Service, Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and Roland Smith (now Cotswold Archaeology). Also Gill Woolrich at Southampton Arts and Heritage and Duncan Brown (now English Heritage). http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/wessex_images/ http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/southampton/ For more information or to discuss possible future partnerships please contact me: catherine.hardman@york.ac.uk http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

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