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Working
with the national agencies and others, ALGAO has continuing
involvement in a range of initiatives aimed at developing
and promoting standards and best practice in order to improve
the quality of information and ease of access for a variety
of purposes.
HER/SMR
Manual: Informing the Future of the Past,
A manual for SMRs was published in 2000 by
ALGAO, English Heritage and the Archaeology Data Service to
provide a set of working guidelines appropriate to all SMRs,
and for all staff, volunteers and students involved in managing,
running or supporting an SMR. The revised edition (2007) has
been produced by a collaboration between English Heritage,
Historic Scotland, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and
Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), the Royal Commission
on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW),
the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers
UK (ALGAO UK) and the Archaeology Data Service (ADS). It constitutes
a major revision and expansion to take into account developments
in record systems, both technical and working practices, and
to widen the scope to fully encompass Scotland and Wales
The
manual offers an overview of the standards, services and systems
that are already in place in HERs and shares ideas about best
working practices in the HERs of today with case studies illustrating
recording practices and model procedure, aimed at provide
a platform for training and continuous professional development
for HER staff.
It
is available as a web based document www.ifp-plus.info.
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Data
Standards
Management
and development of data standards for the historic environment
is co-ordinated through FISH, the Forum
on Information Standards in Heritage.
Two of
the main standards for records are :
- MIDAS
Heritage: The UK Historic Environment Data Standard:
a content standard that defines the individual facts or
'units of information' that should be included in a standardised
record. For the first time MIDAS Heritage sets standards
to record the work undertaken to understand, protect and
manage change to the historic environment. It will help
make it easier to find out what work has been done, how
decisions were made and where to find out more about our
heritage assets (buildings, archaeological sites, shipwrecks,
areas of interest and artefacts/ecofacts). MIDAS Heritage
is available to download for free at www.midas-heritage.info
- INSCRIPTION:
The definitive source for information about all the available
national standards, comprising a collection of wordlists
and thesauri developed by various heritage bodies that are
recommended for use in conjunction with MIDAS units of information.
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