Guides to Good Practice

This page contains archive links to the original ADS Guides to Good Practice. These were replaced in 2011 with updated guides available here Updated Guides

The Archaeology Data Service, with partners in the Arts and Humanities Data Service (which closed in April 2008) commissioned a series of Guides to Good Practice . These Guides provide practical guidance in applying recognised standards to facilitate the creation, preservation, and re-use of digital resources. Some of the Guides focus on specific methods used by archaeologists, others address broader archiving topics. All Guides identify and explore key issues in digital archiving. The Guides are not intended to serve as method texts, but instead provide pointers to basic literature for those who need more detailed information.

• GIS: A Guide to Good Practice {archive}
• Archiving Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing Data: A Guide to Good Practice {archive}
• Digital Archives from Excavation and Fieldwork: Guide to Good Practice 2nd Edition {archive}
• Digital Archives from Excavation and Fieldwork: Guide to Good Practice 1st Edition {archive}
• Geophysical Data in Archaeology: A Guide to Good Practice {archive}
• CAD: A Guide to Good Practice {archive}
• Creating and Using Virtual Reality: a Guide for the Arts and Humanities {archive}
• Marine Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry:A Guide to Good Practice {archive}

The Guides to Good Practice are also available in print. Email Oxbow Books or phone (01865) 241 249 for more details. Guides and sections of guides are also available to readers in different languages: please contact Catherine Hardman at the ADS if you want access to translated sections. Watch this page for more information about paper editions of the other guides.

Each of these Guides includes tips for discovering and re-using extant digital data, information about creating and managing new digital data, and guidance to ensure proper preparation and documentation of this data for long term archiving.

Other Guides from other parts of the Arts and Humanities Data Service include the following, despite the closure of the AHDS these will remain available archived on the AHDS website:

Title	From
Digitising history: a guide to creating electronic resources from historical documents	History Data Service (AHDS History)
Secondary Analysis in Historical Research	History Data Service (AHDS History)
History GIS	History Data Service (AHDS History)
Creating and documenting electronic text	Oxford Text Archive (AHDS Literature Language and Linguistics)
Finding and using electronic texts	Oxford Text Archive (AHDS Literature Language and Linguistics)
Developing linguistic corpora	Oxford Text Archive (AHDS Literature Language and Linguistics)
Creating Digital Performance Resources	Performing Arts Data Service (AHDS Performing Arts)
Creating digital resources for the visual arts:standards and good practice	Visual Arts Data Service (AHDS Visual Arts)
Using Digital Information in Teaching and Learning in Art and Design	Visual Arts Data Service (AHDS Visual Arts)
Why invest in the digitisation of visual arts material	Visual Arts Data Service (AHDS Visual Arts)