Where did I put my trowel? 
Data Management and Efficiency in Historic England’s Excavation and Analysis Team
 
  
Claire Tsang, Archaeological Archives Curator
 
Hugh Corley, Digital Data Archaeologist
@clairetsang5
@hscorley
@HE_Archaeology



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Data Management in the
Project Design
Description of the project
Project name 
Summary description 
Background
Research Aims and Objectives 
Business Case
Project scope
Interfaces
Project review
Resources and programming
Project Team structure
Method statement
Stages, Products and Tasks
Ownership
Risk Log
Budget
How & What
Archive
Archiving
Legal
Sharing
Sharing
Preservation
Responsibility



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Barriers
©English Heritage



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Project Stages

Start-up
Initiation
Execution stage(s)
Investigation
Assessment of potential
Analysis
Dissemination
Archive deposition
Closure




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Audit
Data holdings
Internal practice/tools
External practice/tools

Development of Procedures and Toolkit

Training Program
Archaeological Data Archiving Protocol: Overview



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Data management throughout the life of a project
Data management tasks were efficient 
Archiving is regular, supported by MORPHE project stages
Data is complete, documented, secure and accessible and ready for archiving
Holdings are reduced
Aims of ADAPt



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Produce a Data Management Plan 
Follow the standard file naming procedure
Store files in appropriate and recognisable locations
Regularly create metadata
Continually review data in accordance with the Selection & Appraisal Policy
Maintain contact with the Archaeological Archives Team
Summary of Procedures



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The Toolkit
Data Management
Data Management Plan
Project Management and Archive Checklist
External Data Deposit Form
Evaluation Decision Tree
Selection and Appraisal Criteria
Data Calculator

Image Guidelines
Image Capture guidelines
Image Flowline
Image Metadata Index
File Creation
File Format Standards
File-naming Conventions

Folder Templates

Advice
Preparing reports for deposit
How to create a PDF/A-1a/b
Databases and Spreadsheets



Metadata Forms and Library

+ Software: Batch file-naming, file listing, image metadata embedding




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Based on: DCC. (2013). Checklist for a Data Management Plan. v.4.0. Edinburgh:  Digital Curation Centre. 
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/data-management-plans




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Data Collection
Documentation and metadata
Ethics and Legal Compliance
Storage and Backup
Selection and Preservation
Data Sharing
Responsibilities and Resources
Data Management Plans



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Type, format and volume of data
Formats and software to enable sharing and long-term access
Existing data
Standards or methodologies
Structure and naming folders and files
Version control
Quality assurance processes
Data Collection



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	Classification 	Creation format	Version	Extension	Archive format	Version	Ext.
	Text	Microsoft Word	 	.doc/.docx	Microsoft Word	 	.docx
	 	plain text files	n/a	.txt	plain text files	n/a	.txt
	 	Hypertext Markup Language 	 	.html/htm	Hypertext Markup Language 	 	.html
	 	Macro enabled Microsoft Word Document OOXML	 	.docm	Macro enabled Microsoft Word Document OOXML	 	.docm
	 	Rich Text Format	 	.rtf	Rich Text Format	 	.rtf

	ADS – 
prefer/recg/accept	Digital Archiving Protocol	Additional Documentation	Comments	Access format	Version	Ext.
	Preferred	Preserve Creation format.	software, version and platform		Adobe Portable Document Format (*)	 	PDF
	Accepted	Preserve Creation format	text encoding	 	Adobe Portable Document Format (*)	 	 
	Accepted	Preserve Creation format	Software used in creation, doctype with HTML schema	 	Adobe Portable Document Format (*)	 	 
	Accepted	Preserve Creation format	 	 	Adobe Portable Document Format (*)	 	 
	Accepted	Preferably convert to .docx files but can preserve creation format	Software and version	 	Adobe Portable Document Format (*)	 	 




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File naming convention
File name elements are to be divided by a hyphen
   No spaces are to be used within file name elements
CamelCase

ProjectIdentifier-Event-Function-Product-Status-Version

	e.g.	HE5785-2014b-GlassAssRep-Draft-v01
			HE5785-2014b-GlassAssRep-Diagram3-Draft-v01
 




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What information is needed for the data to be to be read and interpreted in the future?

How will you capture / create this documentation and metadata?

What metadata standards will you use and why?
Documentation and Metadata



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Metadata Library



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What data must be retained/destroyed for contractual, legal, or regulatory purposes?
How will you decide what other data to keep?
What are the foreseeable research uses for the data?
How long will the data be retained and preserved?
Selection and Preservation



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Summary
Efficiency was key to engaging with researchers:
Tools are designed to: 
Standardise data management
Reduce repetitive tasks and decision making
Be reused
Tackle skills gaps
Utilised current and familiar project management working practices
Positive outcomes of better data management have encouraged adherence



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Where did I put my trowel? 
Data Management and Efficiency in Historic England’s Excavation and Analysis Team
 
  
Claire Tsang, Archaeological Archives Curator
 
Hugh Corley, Digital Data Archaeologist
@clairetsang5
@hscorley
@HE_Archaeology



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