Selected projects
4.19.2 Digital data in archaeology: a survey of user needs
In 1998 the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) undertook a survey to find out about the use of computers by archaeologists based in Britain and Ireland. The survey has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Data Service, CADW, English Heritage, Environment and Heritage Service (Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland), the Heritage Council (Republic of Ireland), Historic Scotland, and the Royal Commissions of England, Scotland, and Wales.
The aims of the Archaeology Data Service are to collect, catalogue, preserve, and encourage the reuse of digital data created by archaeologists for research, and to this end we have accumulated a large collection of project data archives, a significant proportion of which remains unpublished. These archives can be difficult to access. With the rapid and increasing computerisation of archaeology, a great deal of information is now being created in digital form, but this information is often not secure. Advances in information technology mean that current software becomes rapidly outmoded, and, more problematic, that popular media for storage become redundant (the Amstrad diskette is a famous example). The role of the ADS is to promote good practice in the creation and long-term archiving of these resources, to provide support for users, and to serve as a digital archive for British archaeology. The survey is therefore a timely opportunity to define the future role of the Archaeology Data Service, and will inform the development of national digital data archiving and dissemination policies.
The survey has four principal aims:
- to inform the development of good digital archiving practices
- to determine the information to which archaeologists need or want continuing digital access
- to define the current extent and quantity of digital data, and the relationships between artefact, digital, microfiche, paper, and photographic records
- to develop a community vision for the best ways to facilitate access to and reuse of digital information
Three thousand questionnaires were sent out to archaeologists working in Britain and Ireland, including teachers and researchers in higher education, local government officers, field and museum archaeologists, independents, and professional and national bodies. This will be the first in-depth study of the impact of computing on all areas of archaeology for over ten years, and is a welcome addition to the detailed reviews now being carried out of Sites and Monuments Records in England, Scotland, and Wales. Equipped with such information, the discipline has the opportunity to move forward as a whole towards greater and more effective dissemination of digital data, by developing strategies that embrace the information needs of all those in archaeology.
The survey report is available on-line as a PDF document.