Sounds like a job for natural language processing of the grey lit reports … Chris Webster Somerset Historic Environment Record Somerset Heritage Centre Brunel Way Taunton TA2 6SF 01823 347434 Online HER: www.somersetheritage.org.uk<http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/> [email size] The Somerset HER is managed for Somerset County Council by the South West Heritage Trust. From: Issues related to Historic Environment Records <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Poppy, Sarah Sent: 14 November 2018 12:59 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Specialist reports Hi Alice et al Many thanks for raising this and I certainly recognise the issues you are describing, and that this is a topic well worth raising given all the initiatives that are currently in progress. From a HIAS perspective we would certainly share the aspiration for this type of specialist data to be readily and efficiently retrievable from HERs and grey literature. So the question for me, is how do we address it? I agree it’s an insurmountable task to go back over historic grey literature, but what measures could be put in place to make this material more accessible in the future without creating additional burdens on services? This might be a combination of OASIS plus modules for some types of specialist data, standards for grey literature reports, guidance about how specialist reports/data are accessioned in HERs? Others may have more suggestions. All best wishes Sarah Sarah Poppy BA MSc MCIfA Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments / HIAS Programme manager Planning Group / Listing Group Direct dial 01223 582713 x2713 Mobile 07717 800429 Historic England | Brooklands 24 Brooklands Avenue | Cambridge | CB2 8BU www.HistoricEngland.org.uk<http://www.historicengland.org.uk/> Please note my usual working pattern is AIAM Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and HIAS Tuesday and Friday. [Historic England Logo]<http://www.historicengland.org.uk/> We are the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment, from beaches and battlefields to parks and pie shops. Follow us: Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/HistoricEngland> | Twitter<https://twitter.com/HistoricEngland> | Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/historicengland/> Sign up to our newsletter<http://webmail.historicenglandservices.org.uk/k/Historic-England/newsletter_sign_up> This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the views of Historic England unless specifically stated. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system and notify the sender immediately. Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on it. Any information sent to Historic England may become publicly available. We respect your privacy and the use of your information. Please read our full privacy policy<https://www.historicengland.org.uk/terms/privacy-cookies/> for more information. From: Issues related to Historic Environment Records [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alice Cattermole Sent: 14 November 2018 12:36 To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Subject: Specialist reports Hello, Just a quick, but not necessarily straightforward, question arising from a few of my recent projects... How do/should HERs acknowledge and index the work of specialists when adding information to HERs? This is an issue that I first thought about when working in the Norfolk HER, but at that time the enormity of the task of going back through all the grey lit and creating new source records for specialist reports which were part of the grey lit archive just couldn’t be justified in terms of the resource implications and the mountain of other more pressing tasks. I came across this issue again last year when I worked on a Historic England-funded project for CIfA when I reviewed the standard of reporting on archaeological artefacts. My initial trawl of grey literature was somewhat hampered by the difficulties in identifying which grey lit reports actually contained specialist reports, as some contractors don’t necessarily list all the specialist contributions in the contents of their report, and sometimes individual specialist authors may not even be identified in the final version. This issue has again been raised during the workshops that we have recently held for the revision of the Regional Research Framework for the East of England. This time, it has mostly been with reference to the difficulties faced when attempting to identify and locate suitable archive material for further analysis, and to determine which specialists have already looked at these archives as part of the post-excavation work. Many participants at the workshops felt that this is something that HERs ‘should’ be recording. However, in our region it seemed that none of them was, except where the specialist report was standalone (i.e. not part of a grey lit report or publication drawing together all the different types of evidence from a site or sites). The only reliable way of accessing this information seemed to be for researchers to deal directly with specialists and enquire of them which grey lit reports contained their specialist contributions. However, most specialists seemed to feel that this combination of not having their reports separately indexed and not being able to retrieve this information from HERs to some extent denigrated their contribution and exacerbated the problem of their work not being readily accessible or referred to. I am interested to know (on- or off-list) whether there are any/many HERs who index specialist reports separately to the overarching grey lit report, so that, for example, all reports written by a single pottery specialist or bioarchaeologist might be returned via a standard HER search. This seems to be something that the research community would like HERs to be able to do, but I was wondering how realistic people working in HERs think this might be. Thanks, Alice –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Alice Cattermole Heritage Consultancy 9 Church Street New Buckenham Norfolk NR16 2BA [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> • 07900 272524 ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the HERFORUM list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=HERFORUM&A=1 ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the HERFORUM list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=HERFORUM&A=1 [https://themuseumofsomerset.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/swht-green-e-sig.jpg]<http:www.swheritage.org.uk/> South West Heritage Trust is supported by Somerset and Devon County Councils South West Heritage is a charity and a company limited by guarantee registered in England. Registered office: Somerset Heritage Centre, Brunel Way, Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton, Somerset TA2 6SF. Company number: 09053532 Charity Number: 1158791 VAT Registration Number: 197221592 Disclaimer This email communication along with any attachments is intended for the person(s) it is addressed to only. The communication is not legally binding, nor is it a contractual commitment on behalf of the South West Heritage Trust. We make every effort to keep our network free of malicious software and take no responsibility for any malware, virus or other damaging files transmitted via this communication. South West Heritage Trust <http://www.swheritage.org.uk> ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the HERFORUM list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=HERFORUM&A=1