26th July 2010, 10:13 PM
on the other hand, when you're the PM, you're a bit stuck over the barrel of trying to keep enough work for the diggers so they stay employed, but trying to do something that approximates to the right thing by the archaeology. Sometimes you make a good call, sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes someone who's not costed in shoring or welfare, or isn't paying their staff as much as you sneaks the job from you on cost. It's the sh***y side of the job. As has been said before, just because you do the right thing doesn't mean you won't get nuked by those who don't.:face-rain:
My main query is what exactly would schools or libraries do with a monkeyload of reports that take about 15 pages of methodology and plans to explain that they found nothing? Most libraries are despearate to get rid of books as they haven't got the space. If it doesn't get read, it goes out. Academic libraries do this as well. The raw data's very boring and utterly pointless for almost everybody (most archaeologists included), and what is needed is the sort of popular synthesis/highlights of the juicy bits that actually engages people and makes them think- not really the role of the individual writing up the site, but someone with the wider knowledge, like the county mounty or the local unit directopr (he says, coming over all 1988). The web seems to be a pretty good place to keep the grey literature (much easier, faster and cheaper than a library once the permanence thing is sorted, although the sheer number of places where people stash the stuff reduces the ephemerality problem (and there's still always a pare copy in the HER/NMR/RCAHMS/ASI, and a magazine could be chucked out every year, or a book every 10 years or so.
Going back on myself a bit, though, surely we need to see what gets downloaded, and more importantly by who and why before we say what we need.. I did a couple of days back, get a flashy newsletter from OASIS, which just said that loads of stuff had been uploaded, loads downlaoded, and that everyone was seeing the point, but it didn't say is how people are using it, and it would be useful to see how many people who downloaded OASIS reports were non-archaeologists (or even academics for that matter)- this kind of thing should be pretty easy to monitor or survey for, surely?:face-thinks:
I like something like this lot have been doing, quietly, for about the last forever. It's aimed at a local, non-technical audience, but is enough to make a start on if you're doing even some serious research (particularly as the grey literature is there as well). The interface isn't the prettiest and it's well hidden, but everything's there.
http://cat.essex.ac.uk/all-reports.html
My main query is what exactly would schools or libraries do with a monkeyload of reports that take about 15 pages of methodology and plans to explain that they found nothing? Most libraries are despearate to get rid of books as they haven't got the space. If it doesn't get read, it goes out. Academic libraries do this as well. The raw data's very boring and utterly pointless for almost everybody (most archaeologists included), and what is needed is the sort of popular synthesis/highlights of the juicy bits that actually engages people and makes them think- not really the role of the individual writing up the site, but someone with the wider knowledge, like the county mounty or the local unit directopr (he says, coming over all 1988). The web seems to be a pretty good place to keep the grey literature (much easier, faster and cheaper than a library once the permanence thing is sorted, although the sheer number of places where people stash the stuff reduces the ephemerality problem (and there's still always a pare copy in the HER/NMR/RCAHMS/ASI, and a magazine could be chucked out every year, or a book every 10 years or so.
Going back on myself a bit, though, surely we need to see what gets downloaded, and more importantly by who and why before we say what we need.. I did a couple of days back, get a flashy newsletter from OASIS, which just said that loads of stuff had been uploaded, loads downlaoded, and that everyone was seeing the point, but it didn't say is how people are using it, and it would be useful to see how many people who downloaded OASIS reports were non-archaeologists (or even academics for that matter)- this kind of thing should be pretty easy to monitor or survey for, surely?:face-thinks:
I like something like this lot have been doing, quietly, for about the last forever. It's aimed at a local, non-technical audience, but is enough to make a start on if you're doing even some serious research (particularly as the grey literature is there as well). The interface isn't the prettiest and it's well hidden, but everything's there.
http://cat.essex.ac.uk/all-reports.html