Dear Ben,
Thank you for expanding on your previous post. Its all fascinating stuff!
The situation is obviously very different to that in the UK and you have to work within that framework. However once you are in a position to publish more information such as thesauri, database standards etc I am sure many of us on the list will be interested to see them. Please keep us informed of developments.
Although some of the fields are unusual in comparison to say English HERs that's not to say they are universally unusual! As said above you are responding to a specific situation which enables the inclusion of fields that would not be possible for English HERs e.g. recording days required to stabilise the site.
The data collection side using heritage experts alongside trained locals is a model that I know others have used. I know some HERs have been involved in projects looking at how to assist and enable volunteers to collect historic environment data (e.g. recent Heritage at Risk projects funded by English Heritage). It might be useful to share experiences of what works and what doesn't - I'll leave it to HERs to chip in with their experience if they want!
Going back to the website - I found the interface clean and fairly straight forward to use. Once you are able to share further details of what some of the fields mean, how the data has been collected etc I think it will complete the website and make it more user friendly. The inclusion of photographs is very helpful to someone who has never been to St Helena to envisage the sites!
All the best
Sarah
-----Original Message-----
From: Issues related to Historic Environment Records [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ben Jeffs
Sent: 25 October 2013 12:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Saint Helena HER
Dear Sarah,
There's a lot of background documentation including a custom thesaurus, database standards, mapping specifications and a set of significance assessment guides; though the lack of a public consultation framework on any of it means that to put it in the public domain would stress the process, which I want to avoid. I have no problem talking about it all ad nauseam though, if anyone wants to get in touch.
The main problem with St H is there wasn't any solid legal protection for heritage of any sort and the only list was a short summary of Georgian buildings produced in the 1970s (the island is one of the best preserved 17th - 19th century landscapes on earth) The main aim of the project was to fix both of these problems, so we front loaded the statutory list element of the HER. There is room for sources, events and artefacts, though they will be part of separate projects. The island is working on the legal framework at the moment.
MIDAS was a really important part of the design for the data set, along with EDM, and the background database is broadly compliant with both in its field set. Some of the fields are a little unusual, for example the days to stabilise, condition and reuse options, and respond to requests from the project funders.
The significance assessments and the thesaurus were interesting to produce, the island has a very unique and specific set of asset types, many not seen elsewhere and certainly alien to England.
The data was gathered by an international team of heritage experts with local trainees, over a four month programme. The team walked the whole island, which was a huge task.
The website was something we produced outside of the project funding to facilitate the public consultation phase, and it is still experimental. It will, no doubt develop over the next few months.
I'd love to meet up and talk about the process, it's been a fascinating one, if anyone was interested. I'm based in Leicestershire and London when I am in the UK.
Best wishes,
Ben
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Portico: your gateway to information on sites in the National Heritage Collection; have a look and tell us what you think.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/archives-and-collections/portico/
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