Paul
we are just about to migrate to Exegesis, and I have at present being having minutes of fun mapping our monument types to the thesaurus. It is a long and boring task (though the repetition means you achieve some sort of trance state...)
In terms of doing this within Exegesis this may be achievable automatically, but the problem is that one thing I have discovered is that you lose detail .
Our present SMR has about four fields to describe the monument, the thesaurus has a number of things which match close enough but not quite e.g. In our present SMR it is possible not only to record that you have a flexed human burial, but also that this was male/female/juvenile, in a way which is searchable. The present monument Thesaurus doesn't. In mapping the term we have lost information that was searchable (though where relevant, we are dumping stuff into text fields to be cleaned up later, so the data is not lost). We have accepted this and realise that we will have to clean up the SMR post migration as one (of many) backlog tasks.
The point being that if you create an automated way of mapping terms you may have to make similar choices, still leaving you with the task of having to revisit each record to clean it up, in which case the automated process is not necessarily helping too much. (?)
BTW this is meant to sound a note of caution rather than saying automated mapping is a bad idea full stop, but the above issues will need pondering. Perhaps the automated mapping should also incorporate a flagging up of affected records in the validation field to help identify which records need revisiting?
As for point one, I haven't had time to examine them in detail, but they don't seem to be so bad that they miss out things that would majorly hinder us here
Nick Boldrini
SMR Computing Officer
Heritage Unit
North Yorkshire County Council
Direct Dial (01609) 532331
North Yorkshire County Council has the right
and does inspect E-Government mails sent
from and to its computer system.
WARNING
This E-mail and any attachments may contain information
that is confidential or privileged, and is intended solely for
the use of the named recipient. If you are not the intended
recipient, please be aware that any disclosure, copying,
distribution or any action taken is prohibited and may be
unlawful.
Any opinions expressed are those of the author and not
necessarily the view of the Council.
North Yorkshire County Council.
