I'm not sure what is meant by Neil's statement that some types of fieldowrk,
notably watching briefs, are not amenable to producing a digital archive.
Even a watching brief can produce a set of images and (possibly scanned)
plans and sections, as well as a report in digital form.

For what it's worth we have for some time required a copy of all reports on
development-led archaeology in digital form as well as a paper one.  We
previously asked for material to be supplied in a format compatible with
MSOffice 95, but since the start of this year the specified format for
reports is PDF, as this protects it from accidental modification by others
once stored.  It also means that we are now getting the whole report
digitally rather than - as sometimes previously happened - just the text
without the plans, drawings, and photos.

I am not too concerned about the argument that as PDF is a proprietary
format it might not last for ever.  It is becoming a widely adopted standard
and it shouldn't be beyond the scope of future software to be
backwards-compatible if need be.

Not all practitioners have access to Adobe Acrobat software or suitable
computer equipment, and we are willing to transfer reports into PDF files
for them for a small charge.

Accessioning images, plans and reports into the SMR digitally enables users
to access them quickly and easily, and move between the individual SMR
record and the report that provides the background and context to the note
in the database.  It will also in due course enable us to make reports
available over the web.

I'd be interested in hearing others' experiences in this area.

John Wood

----------------------------------------------------------
John Wood
Senior Archaeologist
Planning and Development Service
The Highland Council
Glenurquhart Road
City of Inverness IV3 5NX
Tel: 01463 702502 Fax: 01463 702298
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: <http://www.higharch.demon.co.uk>

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-----Original Message-----
From: Neil Campling [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 January 2001 16:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: IFA Standard & Guidance: Data Management


Dear All,

The IFA standards and guidance are for archaeological 'practice' or 'work',
rather than 'projects': practitioners are supposed to achieve a standard of
work or competence.  Therefore, where digital data collection and management
is not the specialism of the practitioner, they should have access to
specialist advice and help on this matter. The standard is for the
practitioner, not the data.

Remember that not all archaeological work is amenable to producing a cogent
digital archive, in particular 'watching brief' work.  Creation of digital
records for some kinds of work could be argued as unreasonable or onerous to
the client. Some work produces no records worth keeping.  Some work produces
meta-data but not infra-data. The key point is that the practitioner needs
to seek advice if in doubt, and to collect / manage data is such a way that
digital capture and recovery is possible.

Remember also that the IFA standards are meant to apply to all kinds of
archaeologists from professionals to amateurs, specialists to generalists.
Make sure the wording is easily understandable and straight-forward.
Cheers, Neil