Historic Environment Information Resources Network

HEIRNET

Minutes of the sixth meeting, held on 28 November 2000 in York

Apologies for absence were received from Prof A Harding (Chairman), Dr D Barrett (ALGAO), Dr R Bland (Portable Antiquities Scheme), Mr S Catney (ALGAO), Ms J Elsworth/Ms M Francis (Cadw), Mr I Shepherd (ARIA), Dr M Stiff (mda).

Dr G Chitty (consultant) was in attendance. Ms J Clarke and Mr T Austin (both ADS) joined the meeting for item 4b.

1 Minutes of the fifth meeting, held on 12 April 2000 in York

The minutes were AGREED to be an accurate record of the meeting, following the substitution of "The Heritage Council" for "Dúchas" in the last sentence of the first paragraph of section 3.

2 Minutes of the working group meeting, held on 19 July 2000 in York

The minutes were AGREED to be an accurate record of the meeting. Dr Heyworth reported that the meeting had been set up at the request of the English, Scottish & Welsh NMRs in an informal attempt to move forward with the implementation of the HEIRNET consultants' recommendations.

3 Membership of HEIRNET

Dr Heyworth reported that he had received a request to join the Network from Dr Harry Robinson representing Manx National Heritage. Their application was welcomed and AGREED.

4 Mapping information resources report

(a) responses to the report

Dr Heyworth reported that a number of responses had been received and circulated to all members in advance of the meeting, although a number of the bodies represented on HEIRNET had not responded. Mrs D Murray suggested that silence could be taken as approval for the recommendations, but Mr Clubb cautioned that it could mean indifference which would be of concern.

It was AGREED that Dr Heyworth should contact all the HEIRNET members who had yet to respond to encourage them to show their formal support for the report's recommendations.

Dr Chitty picked out the response from Dr Stephen Johnson of the Heritage Lottery Fund as particularly useful and suggested that the HLF should be invited to participate in a future HEIRNET meeting.

(b) implementation of the report's recommendations

Dr Heyworth explained that the promised paper had not been prepared as he had only received one response to his circulation asking for offers to take forward the recommendations. The single response was from Dr Richards of the Archaeology Data Service and this had been emailed to all HEIRNET members in advance of the meeting.

Ms Clarke demonstrated the prototype metadata index that had been commissioned from the ADS by English Heritage, RCAHMS & RCAHMW, using a sample of the records collected for the Mapping information resources report (available online at http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/HEIRNET.html). Dr Richards reported that the data was held in Oracle tables and that the index existed as a Z39.50 target as part of the ADS catalogue.

It was AGREED that the prototype was very helpful, but that further thought was required on the mechanisms needed to maintain and update a full index, particularly with the keyword search facilities that would be necessary to enable users to find relevant records. Mrs Murray suggested that an online entry form was needed for users to be able to submit new records and that some extra categories of information would be needed beyond those included in the prototype, eg funding body, HEIR start date, end date, etc. Dr Richards did not think it would be feasible to allow users to edit records online. Mr Clubb suggested the option of allowing users to provide candidate entries for checking by the maintainers of the index.

It was AGREED that the prototype was worth taking forward and that further suggestions for changes and additions to the fields of information held in the index should be send to Dr Richards as soon as possible and at the latest by the end of the year. Dr Richards stated that the ADS would be willing to take the lead role in putting together a full metadata index, working with the English NMR, RCAHMW & RCAHMS who would take responsibility for maintaining records within their specific geographical remits. He also agreed to look at providing further structured ways into the index, eg by geographical area. Dr Heyworth suggested that the subject classification used by the British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (available online at http://www.britarch.ac.uk/biab/class.html) might be useful as one way of structuring the information into categories.

Mrs Murray asked for clarification on the scope of the metadata index. Dr Richards suggested that this was less relevant given that it was set up as a Z39.50 target and could be searched from other targets to allow users to bring together information from a variety of sources (eg AGORA: http://libs2.lib.uea.ac.uk/phase2). Mr Dawson suggested that museums were already well covered through Cornucopia and the forthcoming Scottish museums audit, although Mr Clubb warned against separating off museums from the rest of the historic environment. Mrs Murray stressed the significance of the interoperability issues which should allow anyone to set up a 'gateway' to a specific set of resources, eg Scottish resources, without necessarily being involved in running and maintaining all the individual resources.

It was AGREED that Dr Richards should prepare a brief to develop the full online metadata index, taking into account issues relating to ongoing maintenance. This would then be used to seek funding for the project. Mr Baker stressed the importance of communicating this initiative to other HEIRNET members to ensure that they were fully supportive. Dr Richards said that he hoped to circulate the brief by Christmas and asked for any comments to be sent to him by the end of January 2001.

Dr Richards asked for guidance on the copyright issue for the online metadata index. Mrs Malaws noted that it was not possible for the Welsh and Scottish Commissions to assign Crown Copyright. Mrs Murray suggested that Crown Copyright would be appropriate as its purpose was for public benefit and not for financial gain, however Mr Clubb thought that the index validator should hold the copyright. It was AGREED that Mrs Malaws would seek the views of HMSO on the issue to try and find a mutually acceptable solution.

Mrs Malaws also reported that if the project was to receive funding from Wales then it would be necessary to include a reference to the intention to produce a Welsh language version at some point in the future.

Dr Richards asked if HEIRNET would be happy to make the pilot index publicly accessible. This was AGREED, following a period of grace having notified the record originators and allowed time for them to update their entries.

Mr Baker asked for views on taking forward the technical advisory service envisaged in the consultants' report. Mr Dawson suggested that e-government interoperability framework would mean that all public bodies would have to follow the technical standards that were specified (see http://www.iagchampions.gov.uk/egif.htm). Dr Heyworth offered to set up a web page within the HEIRNET pages on the CBA web site (http://www.britarch.ac.uk/HEIRNET) giving details of relevant available resources and contact details of appropriate organisations as initial points of contact. This was AGREED, although Mr Clubb said that a full service would have to be pushed to make it happen and that a small working group might be needed to take this forward in due course.

Mr Baker noted that many of the other recommendations contained within the Mapping information resources report were not specific action points as such, but were statements of good practice to be disseminated throughout the community of HEIRS.

(c) HEIRNET session at the 2001 IFA conference

Dr Heyworth reported that the IFA had agreed to allow HEIRNET to have a morning session at the 2001 IFA conference in Newcastle upon Tyne, to be held on 11 April. The session would last for three hours. Dr Heyworth suggested that the session programme should include:
i an introduction to HEIRNET – flagging up the contribution of the various partners within the Network
ii details of the Mapping information resources consultancy results
iii short reports on the HEIRNET metadata index and the proposed historic environment Z39.50 gateway
iv an introduction to interoperability work in the UK, Europe and beyond (by Paul Miller of UKOLN)
v an introduction to the National Biodiversity Network
vi a paper on the work in the museum sector bringing together the various networking initiatives

This was AGREED to form a good basis for the session and Dr Heyworth undertook to draft the session programme and contact possible speakers.

It was suggested that papers on the work of HEIRNET should also be offered at other key conferences in 2001, including those organised by the IHBC, Museums Association, the Society of Museum Archaeologists, and the Welsh Society of Archivists, as well as the 2001 Digital Resources in the Humanities conference.

(d) organisation of an HEIRNET conference

It was AGREED that the idea of an HEIRNET conference should be put to one side for the moment, but might be taken forward later in 2001. There were considerable political difficulties in trying to bring together politicians from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

Mr Dawson suggested that the historic environment sector was well ahead of many other sectors in bringing together resources and making them available online, eg the new Culture Online initiative recently announced by DCMS with significant funding attached, and that the work should be widely publicised at every opportunity.

5 Government review of policies relating to the historic environment

Dr Heyworth reported that the report coming out of the review was to be published by English Heritage on 14 December. The Government's response was expected in February/March 2001.

6 Political changes in Scotland and Wales

Mrs Murray reported that the members of the Scottish Executive had been reshuffled following the election of a new First Minister, with Mr Sam Galbraith taking over as the new Environment Minister. Museums and the RCAHMS were now in the Culture Department.

Mrs Malaws reported that there had been similar moves in Wales and there was a proposal to bring all publicly-funded culture bodies together in a single forum.

7 Proposals for the revised public access to environmental information regime

Dr Heyworth reported on a consultation of potential relevance to HEIRNET members, with responses required by 5 January 2001 (except in Scotland where a separate consultation was expected at a later date). Details are available at http://www.environment.detr.gov.uk/consult/pubaccess/index.htm.

8 Date of next meeting

March 2001 in York, exact date to be fixed by email circulation of all members.

Document last revised: 20 December 2000 by Mike Heyworth

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