PAS Blog

On the 26th July 2010, the Scheme recorded the 400,000 record on the database; another Roman coins, this time a nummus of the House of Constantine. We had an internal challenge, with the Deputy Head down to buy the person who recorded this object, a bottle of sparkling wine. The landmark object is show below and was recorded by Tom Brindle, our acting FLO for Staffordshire and the West Midlands.

PAS record number: WMID-D6D183
Object type: Coin
Broadperiod: Roman
County of discovery: Shropshire
Stable url: http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/400298

Several FLOs expressed dismay, that the object was a Roman coin and a metal detector find, I think they were hoping for a lithic or something else found by a fieldwalker for a change… However, coins and metal detectorists are the best represented on our database….

Records Finds recorded Year of recording 3476 4588 1998 6128 8201 1999 11323 18106 2000 11481 16368 2001 8164 11996 2002 14657 21684 2003 26383 39000 2004 33919 52202 2005 37502 58311 2006 49308 79052 2007 37455 56449 2008 39981 66481 2009 112893 190091 2010

You might wonder why these figures don’t always match the Annual Reports; well, the database is constantly being worked on, errors corrected, finds removed if duplicate records  and so on. There’s some blips in the figures being recorded – 2002 for example being foot and mouth hit, in 2003 the Scheme went National and we phased in our new database and in March 2010 we imported 2 large datasets from IARCW and CCI (and you might have heard about 52,503 coins found in Somerset – only 1 record of those though – April). However the 2010 figures are encouraging when you look at the statistics for recording since we went live with our new database (shown below with a comparison to 2009, same period).

Statistics for 2009 Records Objects Month 3638 4395 1 2694 5410 2 2842 3414 3 3191 6284 4 3768 5229 5 3307 4429 6 3152 3819 7 Statistics for 2010 Records Objects Month 4290 12274 1 3509 5526 2 88596 90380 3 4191 57775 4 3957 5255 5 4490 14518 6 3860 4363 7

This post is just a short overview of how you can get our data onto your website without being uber-geeky and knowing how to play with our Applications Programming Interface (API – more on this over the next month or so.)  The Scheme’s website can now serve up various different flavours of content by means of context switching. You can now get:

1. RSS
2. ATOM
3. XML (finds lists and searches are returned in MIDAS format, other pages just plain XML responses)
4. JSON
5. KML
6. CSV

To find out what versions of the content you can retrieve for a page is pretty simple. If you scroll towards the foot of any page on our website, look for the text:

This page is available in: {contexts available} representations.

This makes use of the Zend Framework context switch parameter -format. So any url that has an alternative representation just needs appending format/{context}. So for example, you want to view all finds for Essex in ATOM format you would call this url:

http://www.finds.org.uk/database/search/results/county/ESSEX/format/atom

You can now use this output within your own site using simple software tools such as widgets, simplepie etc. However, what is probably of more interest to many people is getting a map of objects found locally to them. So for example, you run a parish council and you want all objects found in the district. Let’s try my home district of South Cambridgeshire. If you go to our advanced search facility and scroll to the bottom and choose county as Cambridgeshire and district as South Cambridgeshire, then submit the form and wait a second for the search to complete.

Now that the results are there, look at the page foot for the representations available and you’ll see the letters KML. If you click on this, you can now get data in the format that can be used in many online mapping programmes and Google Earth. So if you want to see this on the map, copy the url generated; in this case:

http://www.finds.org.uk/database/search/results/county/CAMBRIDGESHIRE/district/SOUTH+CAMBRIDGESHIRE/format/kml

Now head over to http://maps.google.com.

In the search bar, paste the url that you copied and press search.

The map should now change to show pins for degraded findspot locations. These pins are only provided when the ‘to be known as’ field has not been filled in and the actual points are taken from the 1km grid reference (4 figure). So the map should now render like the below image:

Now you have generated this map, you can grab either the link for the map and send directly to some one, or you can grab the HTML code to embed the map into a webpage. Look in the top corner of the map for the control labelled embed and click this; you then get the layer appearing which looks like the image below:

As this post deals with embedding the map on your own webpage, it is assumed that you can enter raw html directly. Copy the text which is contained in the box labelled “Paste HTML to embed in website”. This looks like:

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=http:%2F%2Fwww.finds.org.uk%2Fdatabase%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Fcounty%2FCAMBRIDGESHIRE%2Fdistrict%2FSOUTH%2BCAMBRIDGESHIRE%2Fformat%2Fkml&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=47.885545,114.169922&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=52.257917,-0.000189&amp;spn=0.72983,0.782087&amp;iwloc=lyrftr:kml:cF4oaez0SXhtHIuPUpXMoJUR9uPk2SiORITteHHHGjS0fvow5su0kSjIVdHy4TwDOfCcxM4bseHHEGTe2fPgy5si2VKsJEzIMAg,gf42aba810981b24d,52.065156,0.171661,0,-32&amp;output=embed"></iframe> <br /><small> <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=http:%2F%2Fwww.finds.org.uk%2Fdatabase%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Fcounty%2FCAMBRIDGESHIRE%2Fdistrict%2FSOUTH%2BCAMBRIDGESHIRE%2Fformat%2Fkml&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=47.885545,114.169922&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=52.257917,-0.000189&amp;spn=0.72983,0.782087&amp;iwloc=lyrftr:kml:cF4oaez0SXhtHIuPUpXMoJUR9uPk2SiORITteHHHGjS0fvow5su0kSjIVdHy4TwDOfCcxM4bseHHEGTe2fPgy5si2VKsJEzIMAg,gf42aba810981b24d,52.065156,0.171661,0,-32" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a> </small>

Then once you have pasted this code into your webpage, saved it and if you aren’t using a content management system, upload it to your website and then the map will be embedded as shown below:

View Larger Map

In the infowindow bubbles that come up when you click on a findspot location, you will see this text:

This findspot has been produced from the 4 figure reference. It is not the precise findspot.

As mentioned above, due to findspot security/ landowner privacy, and an agreement we have with the major body that gives us artefact spatial information, we cannot publish co-ordinates publicly at a precision greater than parish or 1km square (4 figure grid reference) and we also hold back from view finds that have had the “to be known as” field. Therefore, the map you get from this is not 100% accurate! This is not something we can change.

A couple of weeks ago, we sent a mailshot out to all MPs for England and Wales, detailing how they could get finds for their constituency onto their own webpages. This is done in exactly the same way as the above and constituency finds feeds can be obtained from the news section of the website under (and powered by YQL calls of the theyworkforyou api):

http://finds.org.uk/news/theyworkforyou/constituencies

Two examples with finds in their constituencies are the coalition leaders (the Roman coin hoard from Frome announced on the 8th July, had a colalition type coin inside). David Cameron’s constituency of Witney shows this map:

And Nick Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam constituency shows this map:

Once geoRSS is enabled and working properly, you can also do the above using any of the feeds for finds where the context switch called is ATOM. This will be done by the middle of next week, alongside ATOM paging.

Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery and Stoke Potteries Museum are seeking expressions of interest for several Conservation opportunities associated with the amazing Staffordshire Hoard. These would suit experienced conservation professionals and students and allow the successful applicants to influence the future of these objects in a world-class museum setting. Competition will no doubt be very fierce for these posts. Below are the basic details for each role and a pdf of the brief and please note that dates of closing differ for the first post and the second two posts.

Hoard Conservation Advisory Panel

For conservation Professionals, Scientists, Archaeologists and related professionals who wish to to join the Hoard Conservation Advisory Panel. The deadline for applications is June 30th. Download information on the Advisory panel specification.

Conservation professional placements

For conservation professionals who wish to take advantage of a unique professional development opportunity through contributing to the conservation of the Staffordshire Hoard as part of a placement. The deadline for applications is July 30th. Download information on the Conservation professionals specification.

Student placements

Student placements to contribute to the conservation of the Staffordshire Hoard. The first deadline for applications is July 30th. Download information on the Student placement specification.

If you require any further information please email Deborah Cane

On the 3rd June, the British Museum hosted the centenary celebrations for the Roman Society, you can listen to
Andrew Burnett on R4 Today Programme 3rd June 2010 and view images of the day on our flickr page. An alternative view can be seen at the Time Literary Supplement Blog. Somehow, I was convinced to dress up as a gladiator.

On April Fool’s day, the Ordnance Survey opened up its data for people to reuse with less restrictions applied. At the heart of everything we do, place perhap the most important. The Scheme uses National Grid References and place names that you would find on an OS map. The things that these maps depict, often inform where people discover objects; they represent habitation in a past and present form, sometimes concurrently, sometimes from anitiquity. The last word in that sentence is the key to why I wanted to use the 1:50 000 data in our web application (our database). Two categories of place are defined within this dataset:

• Roman Antiquity – of which there are 237 instances
• Antiquity – of which there are 5252 instances

If you download the 1:50k dataset from the Ordnance Survey or from the mysociety cache (remember they are charity, so don’t abuse their servers), there is a document that outlines what the fields mean in the dataset. The important one here was the f_code or feature code column. The data is available via SPARQL (see Leigh Dodd’s article on this), but I wanted to keep a local copy of this data on my server so that I could use it and transform it for some other tasks. After downloading and unzipping onto our server (placing it into the /tmp folder will save you getting error 13 codes with the mysqlimport later), I then created the following MySQL table:

CREATE TABLE `osdata` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL, `km_ref` char(6) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `name` char(60) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `tile_ref` char(4) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `lat_degrees` int(2) default NULL, `lat_minutes` float default NULL, `lon_degrees` int(2) default NULL, `lon_minutes` float default NULL, `northing` int(7) default NULL, `easting` int(7) default NULL, `gmt` char(1) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `county_code` char(2) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `county` char(20) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `full_county` char(60) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `f_code` char(3) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `e_date` char(11) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `update_code` char(1) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL, `sheet1` int(3) default NULL, `sheet2` int(3) default NULL, `sheet3` int(3) default NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci COMMENT='OSDATA 1:50000';

I then needed to import this data, which I accomplished using mysqlimport command in my terminal as below (I use putty at work and OSX terminal at home). Note that I renamed the gazetteer data to the same table name as the mysql table and retained the txt extension. Fields are delimited by a colon and there is no header row.

mysqlimport --user={username} --password={password} --fields-terminated-by=":" {your database name} '/tmp/osdata.txt'

The import should run through and insert 259080 rows of data. Even though I am only interested in the antiquity type fields, I have imported the lot in case I want the rest later. Now I have the data installed, I can manipulate it and use it in the way that I want. If you know your grid references, then it is apparent that the data presents at just 1KM square resolution; this is the maximum precision level to which we publicly display our find spots, so it will tie in quite nicely to the public display of information.

However, I wanted decimal degrees for the latitude and longitude within my table. I therefore inserted two new rows into the MySQL table – latitude and longitude (DOUBLE) and then used a php function to convert the 1km square grid reference into lat/lon values. I’ve also done some further manipulations to get the imprecise centred 1KM grid reference WOEID to get enhanced geographical data.

Now the grid reference has been converted into decimal values, I can now plot these quickly onto a Google Map or use mathematical formulae to get distance from a point; for example the Haversine.

There’s s some very good discussion and code available on these resources, so there’s no point reinventing the wheel:

• Haversine formula can be obtained from various sources, and this page lists 9 scripting language variants.
• Vincenty formula can be found on the Movable Type script pages (via @codepo8).
• More detailed explanation can be found at the Seventh Sense blog

For the Scheme’s database, I wanted to work out if objects were close to an antiquity or Roman antiquity or whether a MP’s constituency or district has them within their bounding box (as found from querying theyworkforyou’s api – more on that later.) As I use Zend Framework, I created a model and then used a view helper to render data onto a finds record. If you’re interested in my code for this, you’re welcome to have it….this one uses the Haversine and is just the model that generates a MySQL query against my database table.

<?php class Osdata extends Zend_Db_Table_Abstract { protected $_name = 'osdata'; protected $_primary = 'id'; public function get50KNearby($lat,$long,$distance,) { $radius = 6378.137; //KM value, swap to 3960.00 for Imperial miles $pi = '3.141592653589793'; $nearbys = $this->getAdapter(); $select = $nearbys->select() ->from($this->_name,array('name','id', 'latitude', 'longitude','distance' => 'acos((SIN('.$pi.'*'.$lat.'/180 ) * SIN('.$pi.'* latitude /180)) + (cos('.$pi.'*'.$lat.'/180) * COS('.$pi.'* latit$ ->where($radius . ' * ACOS((SIN('.$pi.'*'.$lat.'/180) * SIN('.$pi.'* latitude/180)) + (COS('.$pi.'*'.$lat.'/180) * cos('.$pi.'* latitude /180 ) * COS('.$pi.'* longitude /180 -'.$pi.'* ( '.$long.$ ->where('1=1') ->where(new Zend_Db_Expr('f_code = "R" OR f_code = "A"')) ->order($radius . ' * ACOS((SIN('.$pi.'*'.$lat.'/180 ) * SIN('.$pi.'* latitude/180)) + (COS('.$pi.'*'.$lat.'/180) * cos('.$pi.' * latitude /180 ) * COS('.$pi.'* longitude /180 - '.$pi.'* ('.$long.'$ return $nearbys->fetchAll($select); } } }

Below is a record of an object from the controversial Water Newton rally, which was near the site of the Roman town of Durobrivae, near Chesterton in Cambridgeshire [WOEID: 39263, 1KM NGR - TL1295, Lat: 52.561508 Lon: -0.364190].

You’ll see that there are two Scheduled Monument Alerts – there are actually 5 entries in the National Monuments Record for this SAM – and there is 1:50k OS alert for a Roman antiquity. These SAM alerts aren’t shown to users below ‘research’ level. I can then click through to find all records associated within a certain distance of this OS point, and map them if I have at least ‘Research’ user rights on our database. In future, I will try and link these place names through to other linked data resources. By tying them to a WOEID, I can find archaeological photos on Flickr for example.

I don’t think that this breaches the OS licence and there are probably other ways to accomplish this in php, I just dabble in code, so don’t rip me to shreds….

Following our Portable Antiquities Advisory Group meeting, I was asked what levels of detail people are privy to on the Scheme’s database. The below outlines what these account levels can do/see and what geo information is displayed.

Public user – not logged in

The public user level is the most basic of all our levels of access. This gives you access to:

• Finds awaiting validation (denoted by the yellow flag)
• Finds that have been validated and published by our finds advisers (denoted by green flag)
• Low level mapping
  • no dots on maps
  • findspot to 1km grid square level and slight obfuscation of findspot by randomised subtraction/addition of 10ths of a degree to the degraded findspot
  • limited zoom level.
• No access to personal data
• Can add comments but has to fill in reCaptcha

Registered user – most basic level of login

• Finds awaiting validation (denoted by the yellow flag)
• Finds that have been validated and published by our finds advisers (denoted by green flag)
• They can create their own records of their objects and get full mapping capabilities for only these objects which is enhanced over the below low level grade map.
• Low level mapping
  • no dots on maps,
  • findspot to 1km grid square level and slight obfuscation of findspot by randomised subtraction/addition of 10ths of a degree to the degraded findspot,
  • limited zoom level.
• Cannot see maps or retrieve finds by parish for any record with the findspot form’s “to be known as” field completed
• No access to personal data
• Can add comments without having to fill in reCaptchas
• Can add/edit their own records
• Can save searches

Researchers

• Finds awaiting validation (denoted by the yellow flag)
• Finds that have been validated and published by our finds advisers (denoted by green flag)
• Cannot view finds that are still in progress (quarantine/review)
• As above, they can create their own records of their objects and get full mapping capabilities forthese objects.
• High level mapping
  • findspot plotted with a dot on the map
  • full precision for findspot
  • Flickr shapefile outline for parishes
  • Access to Scheduled Ancient Monument proximity search
  • Full zoom capabilities
• No access to personal data
• Can add/edit their own records
• Enhanced spreadsheet downloads

Historic Environment Officers

• Finds awaiting validation (denoted by the yellow flag)
• Finds that have been validated and published by our finds advisers (denoted by green flag)
• Cannot view finds that are still in progress (quarantine/review)
• As above, they can create their own records of their objects and get full mapping capabilities forthese objects.
• High level mapping
  • findspot plotted with a dot on the map
  • full precision for findspot
  • Flickr shapefile outline for parishes
  • Access to Scheduled Ancient Monument proximity search
  • Full zoom capabilities
• No access to personal data
• Can add/edit own records
• Enhanced spreadsheet download
• Special download of csv for import into exeGesis HBSMR (if you don’t know what that is, don’t worry!)

Treasure & Finds Liaison Officers

• Finds in quarantine – records that need more data (reminds them to do so!)
• Finds on review – current working versions
• Finds awaiting validation (denoted by the yellow flag)
• Finds that have been validated and published by our finds advisers (denoted by green flag)
• As above, they can create their own records of their objects and get full mapping capabilities forthese objects.
• High level mapping
  • findspot plotted with a dot on the map
  • full precision for findspot
  • Flickr shapefile outline for parishes
  • Access to Scheduled Ancient Monument proximity search
  • Full zoom capabilities
• Full access to personal data
• Can add/edit own records
• Can edit records made by member, HERO and research users
• Can edit any records they made when working in other counties
• Can edit records made by anyone at their institution
• Enhanced spreadsheet download
• Special download of csv for import into exeGesis HBSMR

Find Advisers

• Finds in quarantine – records that need more data (reminds them to do so!)
• Finds on review – current working versions
• Finds awaiting validation (denoted by the yellow flag)
• Finds that have been validated and published by our finds advisers (denoted by green flag)
• As above, they can create their own records of their objects and get full mapping capabilities forthese objects.
• High level mapping
  • findspot plotted with a dot on the map
  • full precision for findspot
  • Flickr shapefile outline for parishes
  • Access to Scheduled Ancient Monument proximity search
  • Full zoom capabilities
• Full access to personal data
• Can add/edit own records
• Can edit any records created by any user and can publish finds
• Enhanced spreadsheet download
• Special download of csv for import into exeGesis HBSMR

Admin

Now that would be telling.

The Scheme’s database has changed significantly since it went live in its original format in 1999. It is now possible for all users to add and edit their own finds (descriptive, spatial, numismatic, reference and visual details) and add to this country’s archaeological record of public discovery. To add your own ‘finds’ to our database is relatively straight forward and this post outlines how to do this. As with a few other features of this site, you need to get a few things in place before it works properly for you!

So how do you record?

1. Register for a user account on our site (or if you already have an account and haven’t logged in since 21st March 2010, reset your password). We need to have you registered for auditing changes and notifications etc. Your personal details won’t be sold or divulged to evil marketing companies or anyone else who hasn’t sighed up to our T&C.
2. Contact your local Finds Liaison Officer and talk to them about self-recording your objects (we have a strict vocabulary for data entry and there’s some things you might like explained before proceeding). We have to use strict terminology to ensure that things can be found easily and that we can interoperate with other people’s databases.
3. You can only record your own finds as we can’t divulge other people’s details under the Data Protection Act (sorry!) Once we link your personal details to your account, you can see your own records easily and your name gets appended to records created by you automatically.
4. If you have a Treasure object, we would rather that this is reported directly to the FLO for recording so that all the steps needed to dispense the law are followed and no confusion arises (sorry!)
5. Once you have spoken to your FLO, you can happily record away! So keep reading.

Adding a find’s basic information

1. Once you have logged in, look for the button labeled “Add a new object (or artefact in some places)” on either your home screen or on the artefact listers, click on this.
2. Now you can fill in the data for your find.  Many fields are strictly controlled by driven vocabulary – for example, object type auto-completes and others are select driven drop-downs. Most are pretty obvious! Just follow the labels to the left of each form control.
3. Out of all the fields, the only compulsory ones that you must enter are object type and broadperiod, therefore you can start records and return to them. However, we want really complete records with as much information as you can give (you can edit later of course).
4. Once you have filled in your form, press submit and you will be taken to your record and you can now add extra bits. We haven’t adopted multi page forms as you might not have all details at hand and we’re trying to make it all very simple…
5. We also use FCKEditor and HtmlPurifier to ensure valid HTML in the data that you enter. We’ll strip out a wide variety of tags generated by word if you paste from there and also remove curly quotes etc. If you are interested (which probably you aren’t) we store your text in UTF-8.

Adding numismatic data

1. You now have a choice of which bits of data you want to add to the record (if you have entered a coin, you can add numismatic data) and for this example we’re assuming you are entering a Roman coin. So to add numismatic data, look for the link entitled “add numismatic data”. Click on this.
2. This step is driven by logic determined by the denomination type you have. If you choose a denomination, we set in motion a series of cascaded or linked dropdowns.
3. Once you have chosen a denomination, then choose a ruler from the list that is generated (you can’t enter a ruler that doesn’t exist for a denomination type!)
4. After a ruler has been chosen, the cascade sets in motion again and configures the mint, moneyer (only available for Republican coins), reverse type (only available for 4th Century coins) and Reece period. Choose the correct option for your coin if you can fill it in. If not leave blank.
5. Enter any information for reverse/obverse inscription/description
6. Choose die axis measurement and status options
7. Now save your data and you will return to the record you have created.

Adding spatial data

Provenance is vital for the study of stray archaeological finds. The majority of objects we record will have little or no archaeological context and are found in the plough soil, but their spatial co-ordinates may well tell you more about the area’s archaeology. By providing the Scheme with higher degrees of precision for your findspots, the better the research academics and lay researchers can do from these data. The form for recording the spatial data is again pretty straightforward and you have the option to hide sections from public view (comments, address, postcode, all co-ordinates). The below outlines how to enter the spatial information for a findspot (all finds can only have one!)

1. All objects are attached to a named place. We use the Ordnance Survey’s place name data, so we have an  array of data to choose from (Euro-region, County, District, Parish). These place name drop-down lists are also cascaded, so start by choosing your county and then follow the dropdowns choices as presented.
2. To hide the data entered in step 4 from the public, you can enter a pseudonym in the “known as” box (be sensible about it )
3. If you have an address and postcode for the findspot, please fill these in (these never get displayed to the public or research user).
4. Now we need to get the co-ordinates for the findspot. If you don’t have a provenance for the find, we’d rather it wasn’t recorded as it doesn’t add to our useful archaeological record. If possible, record to a higher precision than 4 figure grid reference (which is better than 1km square precision) – this is the maximum level we’ll publish data online to the public user. We also use the National Grid reference system to place our objects onto a map and this is transformed into the following after saving:
   1. Easting
   2. Northing
   3. 4 figure grid reference
   4. Latitude and longitude pair
   5. Elevation on landscape
   6. 1:25K map
   7. 1:10K map
   8. A Yahoo! Where on Earth ID or WOEID for cross referencing against their database (you can see this in action via the adjacent places displayed on the findspot section) and other services that may use their identifier system.
5. After filling in this section you can tell us about the landuse types and any comments or descriptions needed about the findspot.
6. Now save your data!
7. This returns you to the record, where you will now see a map of your findspot and the data that you have entered. You’ll also see any data we’ve managed to retrieve on that area from Yahoo! – a Flickr shapefile for the parish (if available), adjacent places (from the geoplanet database) and postcode etc. More is planned for this section, news on that later!

Adding an image or images

A visual record of the object is really important for research of the object (for many researchers it is often more important than the findspot!) Adding an image is quite straightforward and we add one at a time to make it more simple. We do suggest naming your files sensibly, avoiding non-alphanumeric characters and removing spaces (replace with an underscore, hyphen or camel case the  filename).

To add an image do the following:

1. Look for the add an image link
2. After clicking on this, you’ll see a form with several fields. Click on the ‘choose’  button to find your image that you want to attach (must be under 6MB and we would rather that you uploaded a high resolution JPEG or TIFF image.) If your filename already exists, we’ll tell you and likewise if it is an invalid filetype.
3. When you get to the image label box, refer to the image labeling document produced by our Finds Advisers for the correct methodology that we want to adhere to.
4. Choose your county, copyright, period and image type (your default copyright can be set from the edit account link under your home area. Set it and then logout and back in so that the session picks up the default.)
5. Then submit the new image
6. If everything works okay, you’ll then get redirected back to the record and you can add a new image if needed
7. This process generates:
   1. Thumbnail
   2. Small derivative
   3. Display derivative
   4. Medium derivative (used for the lightbox overlays)
   5. A Zoomify derivative
   6. Original image
8. All users can download the original image – we share everything on this site!

Taking good quality images

This is really important for the record of the object, you can get some good advice on-line or by purchasing Ian Cartwright’s short guide entitled ‘Photographing detector finds’.  If you want good examples of images, have a look at our FLO for the Isle of Wight, Frank Basford’s records.

Basic desires from the Scheme for images are:

• 300 dpi resolution (so images can be reproduced for academic publication)
• good lighting
• a white or black background
• well focused with good depth of field
• scale bar – you can get some good ones from here: http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/paper_rulers/

Images and text on this website are disseminated under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share-Alike licence and are used in a variety of media for enriching our knowledge of the past. You can opt out of this by choosing ‘all rights reserved’ under the image copyright dropdown, or by choosing this as default from your profile settings.

We’ll have some more information on photography and scanning of objects and coins in the coming weeks.

How do my records go public?

As we’re trialling public data entry, we’re currently keeping all public records hidden from view in the review stage (you’ll see a quarantine flag- black biohazard symbol ~ I didn’t like black flags ~ next to your record number when you look at your my finds list). If this feature gains popularity, we’ll extend the system so that you do the following:

1. Enter all data
2. Decide it is ready for checking by our staff and you choose to push your record to review
3. The object record is peer reviewed by the FLO for the county of origin of the object
4. They then decide that it can be seen and it then goes to validation
5. Eventually a finds adviser might check it and it will go green for published.

You can only edit your records in the quarantine (a legacy phrase from our old system) and review stages, if you have more to add at a later date, you can ask any of the Scheme’s staff to return it.

I’m still struggling with the above!

If you still need help self-recording objects, you can go firstly to your FLO for help and more information on our recording philosophy or contact us at the Central office on info@finds.org.uk

The Scheme’s website has been running in β for just over  a month now has experienced no down time in that period. Attached to this post, is an analytics report for the period 24th March – 24th April and is provided just for reference. The stats aren’t that impressive yet in terms of critical mass for visitors (we’ve not publicised the new features yet as we’re catching all glitches); but there’s two figures which are quite good – visit length at 12 minutes 41 seconds and pages per visit at 16. The Scheme’s content is possibly classed as niche interest as well, but very academic and lay research driven, so we probably won’t ever get huge visitor figures.

Shortly, the Google analytics analysis module will go online and you will be able to get our stats at any time for our content, If you want to quote these anywhere, please feel free to do so.

To follow on from the linking of user accounts to finds recorded, I’ve now added a simple link to a Google map of the findspots of these artefacts. It is gives full precision find spots and is only visible at this level to  your user account. No one else can get access to a map at this level of your finds. If there is a demand, I will also enable a context switched download of personal finds lists to Excel formats and KML for importing into Google Earth.

To access your finds map, you must firstly get your personal details that we hold for you linked to your account; so remember to ask your friendly FLO or Central Unit to hook you up. Then look for the below link above your finds lister:

Where to find your personal map link

The dots on the map are colour coded – quarantine (black), on review (red), awaiting validation (yellow) and published (green). You cannot view red or black finds directly on the database, but you can at least see that they are recorded. The map below shows some dummy finds at a high zoom level. If your browser can support the Google Earth plugin for Google maps, you can also view the objects within the Scheme’s database window in that format (and on an OpenStreetMap layer.)

A dummy set of finds locations