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A.8 The future#

An Assessment of SMRs in England (Baker 1999a), Scotland (Baker 1999b) and Wales (Baker unpublished) has shown that their development has been uneven and often on an ad hoc basis. However, more recent research such as the SMR Content and Computing Survey (Newman 2002), has shown that the situation is improving. The government HER consultation results, HER Benchmarks for Good Practice (Chitty 2002) and Resource needs for SMRs and UADs to reach the first stage benchmarks (Baker, Chitty and Edwards 2004) (relating to England) have shown a way forward for future continued improvement in the key areas described below.

A.8.1 Strategic development and co-ordination#

Recent years have seen much greater co-operation between the key national organisations with an interest in the development of English HERs (English Heritage, ALGAO, RCAHMW, RCAHMS, IHBC, DCMS and MLA) since RCHME, ALGAO and English Heritage signed a co-operation statement containing agreed key principles governing SMR development in 1998 (RCHME, ALGAO and English Heritage 1998). The statement set out a shared vision of a national network of heritage records maintained to common standards and accessible to a wide variety of users. Since 1998, this partnership has underpinned a number of projects, including the SMR assessment (Baker 1999a), and preparation of a framework document for the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to guide bids from HERs for funding, recently updated as ‘Unlocking Our Past' (EH/ALGAO 2005).

Following the Baker report (Baker 1999a) ALGAO produced a strategy for HERs (ALGAO 2000) which set out the Association's intention to work with the national partners to:

• Develop national standards for the compilation of HERs and other heritage records.
• Encourage research into the development of a country-wide network of heritage information systems.
• Build relationships between the historic environment and the wider environmental fields.
• Find resources to address backlogs and to broaden the coverage of HERs to encompass the historic environment as a whole.

In England, English Heritage, ALGAO, IHBC, DCMS and MLA meet regularly in an HER Working Party which has taken the lead in such initiatives as the first edition of this manual as well as its revision, in the Benchmarks for Good Practice (Chitty 2002), Resource needs for SMRs and UADs to reach the first stage benchmarks (Baker, Chitty and Edwards 2004) and a framework document for Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) support for HER Outreach, Unlocking Britain's Past (HLF 1999) and Unlocking Our Past (English Heritage/ALGAO 2005). The challenge for the future is for the partners to successfully influence both national and local government to provide greater stability and increased resources to support the further development of HERs.

Similarly partnership in Wales between Cadw, RCAHMW, NMGW and the WATs has led to the Strategic Framework for Historic Environment Records in Wales (Cadw et al 2005).

In 2003 the Scottish SMRs and the RCAHMS agreed a Co-operation Statement (published in 2005) which sets out their aim to work together in a number of areas: liaison, on-line resources, user feedback and analysis, workshops and training, joint services, education and tourism and research. (www.rcahms.gov.uk)

A.8.2 Data standards#

There is now a widespread acceptance of the importance of data standards and three key platforms for this, the event-monument-source data model, the high level MIDAS (Lee 1998) standard and the national reference data terminology lists (INSCRIPTION) have already been agreed by HERs, English Heritage and NMRW. These high level standards are available on the web site for use by any HERs. No comparable work on data standards has taken place in Scotland, but agreement to co-operate on these is included in the Co-operation Statement between SMRs and RCAHMS (RCAHMS 2005). More detailed data standards are being developed in Scotland under the auspices of the ASPIRE project (http://www.aspire-resource.info) and the Scottish SMR Forum.

These standards have and will inevitably develop in the light of practical experience and in response to new areas. A forum for discussing developments in data standards is already in place, the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage (FISH); its work and that of other standard-setting groups will continue. Challenges for the future will include developing standards for archaeological spatial data, an aspect currently being addressed and working towards common standards for heritage information across the UK. (See B.6, E.4)

A.8.3 Research frameworks#

Many archaeologists have long recognised the need for a framework for regional archaeological research and are responding positively to the English Heritage recommendation for the publication of research frameworks. These documents provide a structure within which decisions can be taken on the protection, management and recording of the archaeological resource at local levels and relate national strategies to those needs. Recent examples are the archaeological research frameworks for East Anglia (Glazebrook 1997; Brown and Glazebrook 2000) and the Greater Thames Estuary (Williams and Brown 1999) which provide an assessment of the archaeological resource of these regions and highlight areas where HER enhancements or links between neighbouring HERs need to be developed. In 2005 English Heritage published a national Research Framework (English Heritage 2005b; 2005c). Wales is similarly engaged in producing a national framework and the current statement can be seen at http://www.archaeoleg.org.uk/index.html. Scotland is presently at an earlier stage of the process although the need for frameworks is recognised.

A.8.4 Access and education#

Until recently, apart from a few pioneering HERs, most had limited resources to devote to widening use of their records. Since the Heritage Lottery Fund published a framework document Unlocking Britain's Past (HLF 1999) updated as Unlocking Our Past (English Heritage/ALGAO 2005) to guide HER bids with an emphasis on outreach, education and access projects the position has changed. Several HERs in England including Cheshire, Essex, Durham, Herefordshire, Kent, Northumberland, Somerset, and Warwickshire have been successful in securing HLF funding for such projects. In 2002-03, a proof of concept project, Accessing Scotland's Past (http:\\www.accessingscotlandspast.org.uk), was piloted between RCAHMS and two Scottish SMRs. Some HERs have also been able to take advantage of other government initiatives, such as the New Opportunities Fund(NOF) and the New Libraries Network. All these should enable greater public access to HERs, both directly through the provision of office space and computer access and remotely via libraries, record offices and the internet. The exciting and innovative projects that are now being developed should result in a broader awareness of HERs and their importance. Public interest and enthusiasm for the historic environment and conservation, partially developed through popular television programmes, is also being harnessed to develop a two-way flow of information between HERs and local people with an interest in learning more about, and recording, their local historic environment.

A.8.5 Wider perspectives#

In recent years, at a national and international level, a number of initiatives have been developed to co-ordinate information systems and services for archaeological and architectural conservation. One example is the Historic Environment Information Resources Network, or HEIRNET, a consortium of UK bodies seeking to facilitate common standards and support communications links between information systems relating to the historic environment. A report, HEIRNET: Users and their Uses of HEIRs (HEIRNET 2002) prepared for this consortium on the increasing numbers of Historic Environment Information Resources (HEIRS) (see http://www.britarch.ac.uk/HEIRNET) recommended that:

• a central register of HEIRs should be created and supported by the community of information systems, which has now been created at http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/heirnet/index.cfm
• a technical advisory facility should be established to help projects to use data standards and data structures that assist inter-operability and to bring research results to wider audiences
• funding agencies should take concerted action to ensure that the creators of information systems incorporate accessibility and inter-operability.

Such moves are timely and may help archaeologists improve their input to the new regional organisations recently set up by government (such as regional development agencies, regional cultural consortia). The developing regional structure in England provides an opportunity for establishing improved arrangements for the protection and enhancement of the historic environment through closer co-operation and the development of partnerships between local-authority archaeologists and others with a concern for the historic environment. At the international level there is also a growing trend towards co-operation, both in terms of the creation of international standards such as the Comité International pour la Documentation (CIDOC), and through joint projects funded for example by the various European Community schemes. (See also CARN under A.6.3)

A.8.6 From SMRs to HERs: evolution or revolution?#

The development at both national and local level of a more integrated approach to the management of the historic environment has led to a widening of information sources which are now broader in scope than what was understood by the term 'SMR'. It is in part this which has led to a change of name to ‘Historic Environment Record'. This has proceeded by concensus following discussion by the HER Forum and adopted by EH and ALGAO at their HER working party. Most English and Welsh HERs now contain a record of the built heritage, some contain details of palaeoenvironmental sites and/or links to geological and ecological records. This approach has not yet been adopted in Scotland.

Statutory status, the proposed portal for the historic environment (the Heritage Gateway, an English Heritage initiative in collaboration with ALGAO and IHBC see A.2.8), the trend towards integration of archaeology, the built environment and biological records is in line with national government policy towards modernisation. The Modernising Government White Paper (HMSO 1999) set out a timetable for government departments to deliver services to the public which 'join up' functions currently served by different departments (for Scotland, see Open Scotland, and also the PastMap project that provides access to the Scottish National Archaeological and Architectural Datasets that are maintained by Historic Scotland, RCAHMS, Scottish Natural Heritage and some SMRs). Government departments are required to develop.a timetable for implementing electronic services that are available for 24 hours each day. These requirements give increased impetus to HERs to enhance their databases, adopting GIS, digitising collections and meeting the Benchmarks for Good Practice (Chitty 2002) to provide greater public access in line with the Government's stated objective of access for all, not just a few. Overall, these pressures, with the moves towards regional structures by national government, will pose the question of whether the.current structure of HER provision can adequately resource the needs of a more 'joined-up' approach to the historic environment.

Statutory status proposed for England, the proposed portal for the historic environment (the Heritage Gateway, an English Heritage initiative in collaboration with ALGAO and IHBC), Pastmap in Scotland and Coflein and Historic Wales) and the greater interoperability being provided by FISH through their interoperability toolkit will continue to open up new challenges and opportunities for HERs in the future.