16th March 2012, 04:59 PM
I completely agree with the disposal policy, but having looked at your link I do have grave doubts that it can be considered yet. CLASP are undertaking post-ex work but this seems an on-going and long-term process, and until it has been completed to a sufficient standard the archive cannot be assessed as to what can be disposed of. Perhaps if CLASP were to produce some reports or catalogues that, even if they were not published, but were archived on OASIS, then disposal could be addressed and perhaps some of their storage issues minimised. Storage of archives is already an exploding time bomb in archaeology, and I think PPS5-generated projects are already having to iperate disposal policies to get some archives accepted by museums.
I think many local societies, not neccesarily CLASP, need to look at how they disseminate their results if they are to continue to function. Much is being made under the banner of 'localism' of the need for proffesional archaeologists to connect with local societies and community groups, but to some extent the local societies must also connect with the modern stabdards of archaeology. Under no curcumstances do I want to discourage the involvement of amatuer archaeologists, but I repeat, it must be acknowledged that modern archaeology extends right through to the sustainable archiving.
I think many local societies, not neccesarily CLASP, need to look at how they disseminate their results if they are to continue to function. Much is being made under the banner of 'localism' of the need for proffesional archaeologists to connect with local societies and community groups, but to some extent the local societies must also connect with the modern stabdards of archaeology. Under no curcumstances do I want to discourage the involvement of amatuer archaeologists, but I repeat, it must be acknowledged that modern archaeology extends right through to the sustainable archiving.