Digital Archaeology or why preserve

1
Digital Archaeology (or why preserve?)

• Alastair Dunning,
• Arts and Humanities Data Service

2
What is Digital Archaeology?

• Process of recovering lost data and reconvening
  it as useful information
• Data sources that have undergone digital
  archaeology
• Domesday Book
• East German Govt. staff records
• Newham Archive
• 1970s Schools Census
• Your own digital photo collection

3
Types of excavation

• Types of problems facing digital archaeologists
• Corrupt files and media
• Obsolescent hardware
• Evolutions in software
• Proprietary software
• Inadequate documentation
• Poor metadata
• Lack of coding tables
• many other examples

4
Partial recovery

• Rarely a question of complete loss or recovery
• e.g. Schools Census was recovered even with
  problems such as
• Unexplained abbreviations, truncated fields,
  missing code tables
• Much, but not all, data could be re-understood
• Nevertheless A painstaking, time-consuming -
  and expensive exercise . Something to avoid if
  possible

5
How to keep the digital archaeologists at bay

• Making sure your data functions and continues to
  be understood
• ? Implement a preservation strategy to cope with
  short-, medium- and long-term plans
• Preservation also helps with
• Securing future funding
• Maintaining a professional reputation
• Stopping mad panics in office
• ? Todays workshop Practical and Strategic help
  with preservation

6
Preservation Workshop - Overview

• Planning your horizons
• Issues in preserving websites and functionality
• Documenting resources
• Coping with new standards and technology
• Strategic thinking
• Senior managers brief
• Case study