Forwarded for interest of FISH list members (apologies for cross-posting).
Day 3 of the conference (Wed 3rd December) may be of particular relevance.
But it all looks good... follow the britarch-debates link to join in.

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Bateman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 25 November 2003 13:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: E-Conference Announcement - REVIEW OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARCHIVE
STANDARDS


E-Conference Announcement

REVIEW OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARCHIVE STANDARDS

The Archaeological Archives Forum, with support from English Heritage and
the IFA, is undertaking a review of standards for the creation and
deposition of archaeological archives in England.

From December 1 to 5 an online e-conference will be hosted by the CBA via
britarch-debates (http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/britarch-debates.html) on
a series of issues that have been identified in the initial stages of this
review.

All parts of the archive creation and control process are being considered,
from project planning through data recovery, finds treatment and record
management, to final deposition. The aims are: to identify areas where no
commonly held standards exist, or where there are inconsistencies, and to
make proposals to rectify any such situation; to gain an understanding of
how the archive process is managed by considering the roles of different
institutions and organisations and the relationships between them, and
indeed how they perceive their own responsibilities and position within the
archive process; to establish the feasibility of producing a set of national
standards for the preparation and deposition of archaeological archives.

The first stage of this survey has been to conduct a literature review of
existing archive standards, including those with a national remit (e.g.
Standards in Action), those that refer to individual archive repositories
(e.g. specific museum deposition standards), those that are used by
archaeological contractors (e.g. field and finds manuals) and briefs issued
by planning authorities to archaeological contractors .

This was followed by a stage of consultation at three separate seminars held
in London, Worcester and York. Small groups of invited representatives of
each part of the archaeological process, including planners, contractors,
specialists and museum curators, participated in wide-ranging and useful
discussion.

A series of points have emerged from the consultation process and provide a
guide for the e-conference.  Each of these topics will be addressed over the
course of the week's e-conference, with a final day of summing up and
conclusion.

This conference is being organised by the Archaeological Archives Forum and
is hosted by the Council for British Archaeology.  The conference Convenor
is Duncan H. Brown.

In order to help you distinguish messages from the conference in your email
in tray, all messages that are circulated via the list will have a subject
line that starts:

[AAF_E-CONFERENCE]

Over the week of the conference, a series of themes will be discussed.  Each
of these will be introduced by a session Theme Leader and will run for the
course of the day.  The timetable for the conference is:

Introduction to e-conference and "Minimum Standards" - Monday (1 December)
led by Kenneth Aitchison, Institute of Field Archaeologists

"Responsibility" - Tuesday (2 December), led by James Dinn, Worcester City
Council

"Digital Archives" - Wednesday (3 December), led by Kathy Perrin, English
Heritage.

"Regional Repositories" - Thursday (4 December), led by Hedley Swain, Museum
of London

Summary and closure - Friday 5 December

Following each theme, a summary of the discussions will be posted.

Your contributions on each of these themes will be greatly valued.  While it
would help for contributions to focus on the particular issue under debate
at the time of posting, it is appreciated that there is a considerable
amount of overlap between some of these themes.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Jonathan Bateman
Information Officer

Council for British Archaeology
Bowes Morrell House  111 Walmgate
York  YO1 9WA
tel 01904 671417
fax 01904 671384
[log in to unmask]

The Council for British Archaeology
http://www.britarch.ac.uk

TORC :: Training Online Resource Centre for Archaeology
http://www.torc.org.uk

Join CBA/YAC & buy CBA books through our
online shop at www.britarch.ac.uk/shop
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