ADS Homepage Redesign

ADS Projects, Audience and Usage, Development

Here at the Archaeology Data Service, we believe that the way in which we connect to the past truly matters, and as a result, we are redesigning our website’s homepage.  For the first stage of this, we will be carrying out a survey into how you, the user, use the website and if there are any elements you would like improved or added. 

Tell us your opinions via this survey.

The second stage will involve having a sneak peek at the designs and offering your opinion on them in terms of what you like and dislike.

So get ready for your opportunity to be involved in redesigning the face of our business, for we believe every story is important. If you have any questions we are always very willing to answer.

Example ADS new homepage design

World Digital Preservation Day 2019: the ‘Bit List’ vs Archaeological Data

Archives, Digital Preservation,
World Digital Preservation day logo

The Archaeology Data Service would like to wish everyone a very happy World Digital Preservation Day. We’re excited to be raising awareness of Digital Preservation and celebrating the work that we do.

We’re looking forward to reading the DPC’s new edition of the ‘Bit List‘ of Digitally Endangered Species released today and hearing about how our fellow archivists and the #DigiPres community are participating.

We thought we’d address a few of the ‘endangered species’ of file formats on this year’s list and see how they relate to the data that we receive as an archive for archaeological data.

Continue reading World Digital Preservation Day 2019: the ‘Bit List’ vs Archaeological Data →

Human Settlements in a Digital Universe: The No Man’s Sky Archaeological Project

Archives, Audience and Usage, Development

By Andrew Reinhard

On August 11, 2017, a community of a few hundred people awoke to find their homes and farms destroyed, the air too toxic to breathe, and temperatures either soaring of plunging hundreds of degrees on either side of zero. They needed to evacuate, a mass exodus to the stars happening over the next few weeks. Their settlements became disaster ruins overnight, and this catalysmic event turned a human population into climate refugees.

Continue reading Human Settlements in a Digital Universe: The No Man’s Sky Archaeological Project →

It’s the end!

Digital Preservation, Internet Archaeology, OASIS, Staff, Uncategorized, , , ,

I’m finally at the end of my internship here at ADS, which has flown by. I’ve learned a lot and have been able to appreciate some of the intricacies of what goes on behind the scenes at an organisation such as ADS.

Image of the Rabbit from the novel Alice in Wonderland. Used to represent falling down library rabbit holes. Image source: John Tenniel, Wikicommons
Falling down library rabbit holes
Image source: John Tenniel, Wikicommons

I started off working on the library, starting off by updating the entries for Internet Archaeology. Which inspired me to write this blog post. I also did some tidying up of entries in the library. Doing this made me not only appreciate what a huge resource it is but also led to me falling down many, many rabbit holes. I especially love some of the publications from before 1850 and their illustrations. Looking at the older reports from local and regional archaeology and antiquarian societies also made me appreciate how the library also represents the history of British archaeology and how much of our discipline is built on these earlier efforts.

Continue reading It’s the end! →

The ADS Investigates: #MythBustingMay

ADS Projects, Audience and Usage, Digital Preservation, ,
Black and white illustration of the profile of Sherlock Holmes smoking a pipe.

Throughout the month of May, the ADS has been investigating and debunking some of the myths and misconceptions that surround archives, digital preservation and the Archaeology Data Service.

You may have seen us using the Twitter hashtag #MythBustingMay to highlight some of these common misunderstandings, signpost useful resources and evoke the occasional PDF-related public outcry. The project has been well received and we hope has provided a useful insight into digital preservation best practice and the services the ADS provides.

As the month draws to a close and we hang up our deer-stalkers, we’ve decided to free ourselves of the shackles of 140 characters and compile a blog to discuss some of the key issues and ideas the project has highlighted.

Image of documents on shelves with the ADS logo and the text 'busted!'
Continue reading The ADS Investigates: #MythBustingMay →

ARIADNEplus Community Needs survey: Data and Services

ADS Partners, ADS Projects

The ARIADNEplus project invites archaeological researchers and data managers to participate in an online survey on community needs regarding data sharing and access, new services and tools, and related training needs.

ARIADNEplus is a project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Programme. It aims to integrate archaeological datasets in a digital infrastructure so that researchers can use them with services and tools, which will also be provided by the project.

We kindly invite you to share your experience and views on the survey topics. The survey includes matrix table questions, therefore using a desktop or notebook (not a tablet or mobile) is recommended.

The survey can be accessed here.

Thank you very much for your valuable contribution!

ARIADNE logo

ADS all over the world

ADS Projects, Conferences, Staff, Uncategorized

Many moons ago, the ADS decided that it was going to try and increase its social media presence.  To this end, we started tweeting, and posting, and doing all sorts of social media like things.  From this, we began experimenting with the world of hashtags and found ourselves interacting with #Archive30.  It was through this trend of talking about a different thing from our archive and work that we came to the day of outreach.

Now outreach can mean something different to each person.  According to Google’s dictionary it means ‘an organization’s involvement with or influence in the community, especially in the context of religion or social welfare.’  So we were at conundrum.  How would we, an organization dedicated to the preservation of digital data going to show our many followers (who I’m sure were waiting with bated breath) that we left our offices every once in a while?

Well, if there is one thing that I enjoy, it’s a good old visualization of information.  And that is how the lovely map below was made.

Continue reading ADS all over the world →

Gems in the Library #2 The Underhill Archive

Archives, Data Reuse, Digital Preservation, Open Access, , , , , , ,

It’s almost the weekend so obviously this was the right time have fun with some of the beautiful images to be found in the HMJ Underhill archive, compiled by Oxford University and available in our archives. Also I felt like brushing up on the old QGIS skills. So I decided to georeference some of these images and see how they match up with modern maps.

These images all come from the Underhill Archive available on the ADS Archive. The archive was put together by Deborah Harlan and Megan Price at the University of Oxford. It consists of hand painted glass slides of British megaliths as well as maps of ancient Britain and the areas surrounding prehistoric monuments.

Northern Roman Britain georeferenced here on open street maps. The map was probably drawn around 1895.
Northern Roman Britain georeferenced here on open street maps. The map was probably drawn around 1895.
Continue reading Gems in the Library #2 The Underhill Archive →

CH-CH-CH-CH-Changes: Improvements to our ADS-Easy and Oasis Images Services

ADS Projects, ADS-easy

Cover from David Bowie's album 'Changes'. Highlighting changes and improvements to the ADS-easy and OASIS Images services.

Over the last few months, ADS beavers have been busy in the background making much needed updated and improvements to our electronic submissions systems. Over the last couple of years, we have listened to your comments, digested the constructive criticism in your emails, bought a job lot of earplugs for those exasperated phone calls and tried our best to address them. While we cannot remove all those requirements for metadata, or reduce the costs of deposition, what we have tried to improve is the process of deposition to make it as streamlined and seamless as possible.

Continue reading CH-CH-CH-CH-Changes: Improvements to our ADS-Easy and Oasis Images Services →