Historic Environment Information Resources Network

HEIRNET

Minutes of the fourth meeting, held on 11 January 2000 in London

Apologies for absence: Mr S Catney (ALGAO), Ms J Owen (SMA), Dr D Robinson (ADS), Mr I Shepherd (ARIA) & Dr M Stiff (MDA).

Mr D Baker, Dr G Chitty & Dr J Richards were in attendance.

1 Introductions

Professor Harding welcomed everyone to the meeting, especially Ms Elsworth from Cadw, Mr Badcock from the IHBC and Mrs Malaws from RCAHMW who were all attending their first HEIRNET meeting.

2 Minutes of the third meeting, held on 4 May 1999

The minutes were AGREED.

3 Statutory status for Sites & Monuments Records

Dr Heyworth reported that the possibility of statutory status for SMRs in England was to be considered as part of a review of policies relating to the historic environment in England which was being undertaken by English Heritage on behalf of the Department of Culture, Media & Sport. The review had been announced in a speech from Mr Howarth, Culture Minister, in November, but the timescale for its completion was not yet known. However, Dr Barrett reported that there had been no encouraging signs in a recent ALGAO meeting with English Heritage.

Mrs Murray reported that, following the publication of Mr Baker's report on SMRs in Scotland, the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland had recommended that statutory status should be given to SMRs in Scotland and this would be discussed at an open forum meeting to be held in the spring. However, she questioned whether statutory status was the main issue as what was really needed was proper financial support. Mr Ashmore added that Perth had now agreed to establish an SMR, with financial support from Historic Scotland.

4 HEIRNET membership

Dr Heyworth reported that David Sweetman, Chief Archaeologist for Dúchas, the Irish Heritage Service, had declined the invitation to join HEIRNET as they did not have adequate facilities for networking and were very understaffed. No reply had been received from Manx National Heritage, who had also been invited to join.

It was AGREED that other avenues should be explored to try and ensure some representation from the Republic of Ireland and Dr Heyworth agreed to discuss this with colleagues in Dublin in a forthcoming visit.

Dr Heyworth reported that the Association of County Archivists and the Scottish Cultural Resource Access Network were happy to be kept in touch with developments but did not wish to attend meetings. Mrs Malaws suggested that the Archive Council in Wales should also be contacted and Dr Heyworth undertook to write to them. Mrs Murray agreed to provide details of any comparable organisations in Scotland that should be involved in the future.

5 Project reports

Prof Harding invited contributions from HEIRNET members on ongoing and new projects and recent developments.

Dr Barrett reported that ALGAO had commissioned an SMR manual, with financial assistance from English Heritage. The manual was being drafted by Essex County Council Archaeology Section and the Archaeology Data Service and would focus on best practice in relation to SMRs, including sections on disaster planning, risk management and strategic planning. It was hoped to publish the manual in March.

Dr Richards reported that the ADS had published further Guides to Good Practice, both in print and on its web site, and that the ADS catalogue now included the Northern Ireland SMR and files from the DAPPER project relating to excavation archives from Eynsham Abbey and the Royal Opera House excavations in London. The ADS was also involved in three archaeology projects funded through the Research Support for Libraries Programme: ARCHWAY, which was looking at collaborative collections management and information services for archaeology journals; OASIS, which involved online access to grey literature by linking together information from the Bournemouth University Archaeological Investigations Project and the English Heritage National Excavations Index and providing a mechanism for organisations to submit details of further work through an online form which could have UK-wide application; and a further RSLP project setting up a searchable database of air photographs from the Cambridge University aerial photograph library.

Mr Dawson reported that the 24hourmuseum project had received funding from the Department for Education & Employment to index museum web sites and their educational resources. The Cornucopia project was also continuing and, following pilots in the south of England, would be extended to cover the whole of England in 2001.

Mr Ashmore reported that Historic Scotland was enhancing its own Intranet and this should lead on to more material being available on its web site for external access.

Mr Baker reported that he and Ms Chitty were undertaking a needs and options study relating to church heritage records on behalf of the Council for the Care of Churches and the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England. A report was due to be submitted in March and would lead to a seminar in the summer.

Dr Bland reported that the portable antiquities scheme database would be enhanced within the next two months with more images and further spatial information for findspots. The application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to extend the scheme to the whole of England and Wales for a three-year period would be submitted in February and a response was expected in July.

Mrs Murray reported that RCAHMS's contributions to the SCRAN project were ongoing. The thesaurus project to map the Scottish site terms onto the English sites & monuments thesaurus was going well, though there were still some technical issues to be resolved. The Accessing Scotland's Past project had run into difficulties due to a change in policy by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The situation had yet to be resolved, but it was likely that the Commission would submit its own bid, though this was regrettable. Mr Baker's report on Scottish SMRs had been published and widely welcomed, though some parts of Scotland were still not covered by an SMR and the future of some existing SMRs was not secure.

Ms Elsworth reported that the ENDEX project was continuing, in conjunction with RCAHMW and the Welsh archaeological trusts, and that Cadw had recently launched its own web site with details of archaeological activities in Wales at http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk.

Mrs Malaws reported that, following the retirement of Terry James, RCAHMW was reviewing its information strategy and this was likely to lead to further restructuring. Agreement had been reached on the information to be available through ENDEX, which would be accessible through all the partners' web sites, but further practical issues remained for discussion. The Commission was also developing its own web site and a number of datasets would be made available over the coming months, including the Welsh chapels database. Some realignment of the Commission's work was underway now that it came within the education brief of the Welsh Assembly and a bid for funding to put more cultural content onto the Commission's web site had been submitted.

Mr Badcock reported that the IHBC's web site was up and running.

Dr Heyworth reported that the project to digitise all out-of-print CBA research reports and occasional publications was now reaching the dissemination phase as all the digitisation work had been completed. The first batch of reports would be placed online via the ADS in the spring. The Publications Users Needs Survey would also be published in the spring and the results would be discussed in a session at the IFA conference in early April. The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography was discussing its own strategy for the next five years and was considering a number of ways to enhance the service that it offered, acting as a central service for the provision of quality bibliographic data that could be downloaded into other information systems. A further CBA information service was also in prospect linked to education, training and careers information for UK archaeology, funded by English Heritage on behalf of the Archaeology Training Forum. It was hoped to launch the new service online later in the year.

Mrs Murray reported on a meeting which had taken place in Bakewell when a number of individuals, invited by Roger Mercer and Timothy Darvill, had gathered for a brainstorming session on archaeological records. The meeting had not been minuted and thus no record was available, but it had been agreed to hold a further meeting later in 2000. The group was likely to operate as a think tank and would not in any way cut across the deliberations of HEIRNET. Mr Clubb suggested that the group's meetings needed to be made more transparent to maintain the trust of those involved in HEIRNET and other individuals and organisations who had not been invited to the Bakewell meeting.

Mr Clubb reported on the European heritage net project (see http://www.european-heritage.net) in which English Heritage had been asked to represent the UK by DCMS. The project had a web site which detailed government policy and organisational structure relating to conservation in each European country. He also reported that the Images of England project was in the final stages of procuring its computer system and that images would begin to appear on the web in June. The Heritage Spatial Information Service system was now undergoing testing and would be available within English Heritage within a few months. The MONARCH database was also being upgraded and redeveloped through a project entitled NEWHIS.

6 Consultancy work to `map' information systems

Prof Harding invited the consultants to present their report to the meeting, in advance of a discussion of the conclusions and recommendations.

Mr Baker introduced the report, reiterating the brief that the consultants had been given. Ms Chitty then outlined the modelling exercise that the consultants had undertaken and gave an account of the methodology they had adopted. She stressed that there was a very dynamic and complex multi-dimensional landscape of information systems which precluded any attempt to provide a specific `map' of information systems relating to the UK's historic environment. Dr Richards then outlined the vision of interoperability that would allow an interconnecting series of HEIRs to be accessed via a number of different non-hierarchical gateways, depending on user needs. Mr Baker completed the consultants' presentation by outlining the principal recommendations contained within the report.

Prof Harding thanked the consultants for their presentation and all the hard work that had gone into the consultancy, culminating in the production of the final report. He suggested that the key matters for discussion were whether HEIRNET was prepared to accept the report in fulfilment of the original brief, and if so how the report should be disseminated and its recommendations taken forward.

Following discussion of the recommendations it was AGREED that, subject to a number of textual revisions, the report should be accepted as fulfilling the brief and the project should be signed off. It was also AGREED that the report synopsis should be printed and disseminated to a number of relevant organisations and individuals, with the main report and appendices made available to all electronically via the HEIRNET web site. A conference would then be organised, administered by the CBA on behalf of HEIRNET, to which all interested parties would be invited. The aim of the conference would be to ensure that the conclusions and recommendations of the consultants' report were widely shared and endorsed by those working with information systems relating to the UK's historic environment.

Prof Harding and Dr Heyworth undertook to prepare an outline plan for the conference, in consultation with other HEIRNET members.

The consultants undertook to provide a revised copy of their report, taking account of the minor changes suggested during the meeting. The revised document would be made available to HEIRNET members for their approval before it was formally published.

Prof Harding thanked everyone for their participation and urged everyone present to take the report back to their organisation for consideration and bring suggestions to the next HEIRNET meeting on how the recommendations could be implemented. All offers of support would be welcome.

7 Date of next meeting

It was AGREED that the next meeting would take place at 2pm on 12 April 2000 in York.

Document last revised: 20 January 2000 by Mike Heyworth

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