Hi,
We have looked into
this issue in Devon as part of our regular Development Control work. The
main problem appears to be that many museums that accept archives derived from
PPG16-related archaeological work do not have a policy to collect and
archive digital data. To my knowledge (please correct me if I'm
wrong) is that there is no (national) policy from the museums community to
archive digital archaeological data in an appropriate way (such as with the
Archaeology Data Service - ADS). Asking for an archive to be deposited
with the ADS, when the only digital component is a few photographs, may be an
appropriate way forward, but there would be considerable costs for each project
associated with this. Possibly an agreement between the museums community
and the ADS (or other digital archive that preserves digital data in the long
term) needs to be investigated?
In the meantime,
we see the black-and-white negatives/prints as the photographic archive. To this end,
we state in our briefs for archaeological work "The photographic record shall
be made in B/W print supplemented by digital or colour transparency. If digital imagery is to be the sole
photographic record then suitably archivable prints must be made of the digital
images by a photographic laboratory.
Laser or inkjet prints of digital images, while acceptable for inclusion
in the report, are not an acceptable medium for archives. The drawn and written record will be on an
appropriately archivable medium."
Anyone got any other
thoughts about this?
best
regards,
Graham Tait