Publication: Historic England – Latest Advice and Guidance Catalogue (April 2017)

News

Historic England recently published (April 2018) a catalogue of their latest advice and guidance material covering a range of subjects areas. Examples include:

Caring for Heritage

  • Heritage crime
  • Post-war public art

Planning

  • Environmental assessment
  • Local listing
  • Historic area assessments

Technical – Archaeological Science

  • Land contamination
  • Organic residue
  • Preserving archaeological remains

Technical – Recording Heritage

  • Creating interpretive drawings
  • A guide to good recording practice

https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/find/latest-guidance

 

Conference: Spatial Humanities 2018 (Lancaster, 20-21 Sept 2018)

Events

Spatial Humanities 2018 – Call for Papers

  • Where: Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
  • When: 20-21 September 2018
  • Deadline for Abstracts – 28th February 2018

Lancaster’s Digital Humanities Hub is hosting a Spatial Humanities 2018 conference in September 2018. The conference will explore what geospatial technologies such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have to contribute to humanities research.

The main aim is to explore and demonstrate the contributions to knowledge enabled by these technologies, approaches and methods within and beyond the digital humanities.  Submissions on all aspects of using geospatial technologies in humanities research, including database development, methodological innovation and applied research that develops our understanding of the geographies of the past, is welcomed.

Contributions are invited from all humanities disciplines, including (but not limited to) history (including fields from social science history such as historical demography and environmental history), archaeology, literary studies, classics, linguistics and religious studies, as well as from technical fields including GISc, digital humanities, computational linguistics and computer science.

Keynote speakers

  • Prof. David Bodenhamer, The Polis Center, Indiana Purdue University, Indianapolis
  • Dr. Janelle Jenstad, Department of English, University of Victoria.

Cost: Full registration (including teas & coffees and lunch on both days) will cost £195.

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY DIGITAL HUMANITIES HUB

CIDOC Conference 2018 – Call for Papers

Events

Call for Papers for the next ICOM-CIDOC Conference entitled The Provenance of Knowledge.

Where and when: Heraklion, Crete, 29 September – 4 October 2018.

Deadline for conference proposals (presentations, workshops and case studies): 28 February.

Conference theme

‘As an essential aspect of documentation, Provenance of Knowledge refers to the attempt to trace the origins of the information and knowledge about an object, an entity or an idea in order to reconstruct the whole chain of creation, use, interpretation and dissemination of relevant information and knowledge.

The ultimate purpose of this reconstruction is to confirm, illustrate, and validate the information and knowledge contained in the documentation in order to facilitate understanding across times and cultures. In this way, it contributes to scholarly citation in information handling while connecting all the material evidence kept in museums and other memory institutions.

The validation of information and knowledge has been greatly helped by the increasing use of digital technologies in documentation. However, this advancement in documentation has created new difficulties as the abundance of the available information makes it difficult to introduce standards and processes to model and maintain the development and validity of documented information.

The 2018 CIDOC conference aims at supporting museums by deepening the understanding of documentation as a means of knowledge preservation, dissemination and exchange.’

CAA Conference: Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (Tübingen, 19-23 March 2018)

Events

The 2018 Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA)  conference will take place between 19-23 March, at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

The Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) Annual Conference is one of the major events in the calendar for scholars, specialists and experts in the field of computing technologies applied to archaeology.

The 46th Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2018) has been given the theme “Human history and digital future”. The conference will address a multitude of topics. Through diverse case studies from all over the world, the conference will show new technical approaches and best practice from various archaeological and computer-science disciplines. The conference will bring together hundreds of participants from around the world in parallel sessions, workshops, tutorials and roundtables.

For general information about the conference: caa2018@caaconference.org

CAA - Computer Applications and Quantitive Methods in Archaeology

Conference: Metadata and Semantics Research (Tallinn, 28 Nov – 1 Dec 2017)

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The 11th International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR’17) will be held at Tallinn University in Tallinn, Estonia from November 28th – December 1st 2017.

MTSR is an annual international inter-disciplinary conference which brings together academics, researchers and practitioners in the specialized fields of metadata, ontologies and semantics research. The conference provides an opportunity for participants to share knowledge and novel approaches in the implementation of semantic technologies across diverse types of information environments and applications. These include Open Access Repositories and Digital Libraries, Cultural Informatics, Digital Humanities, E-learning applications, Search Engine Optimization and Information Retrieval, Research Information Systems and Infrastructures, e-Science and e-Social Science applications, Agriculture, Food and Environment, Bio-Health & Medical Information Systems.

Topics

  • Theoretical and foundational principles of metadata, ontologies and information organization;
  • The emergence and application of the Internet of Things (IoT) in libraries and cultural heritage institutions (such as RFID technologies, smart libraries and virtual museums);
  • The applications of Linked Data, Open Data, Big Data and user-generated metadata;
  • Digital Interconnectedness – the what, why and how of Linked Open Data and the Semantic Web;
  • Metadata standardization, authority control and interoperability in digital libraries and research data repositories;
  • Emerging issues in RDF, OWL,SKOS, schema.org, BIBFRAME, metadata and ontology design;
  • Linked data applications for e-books, digital publishing and Content Management Systems (CMSs);
  • Content discovery services, search, information retrieval and data visualization applications.

Proceedings will be published by Springer in Vol. 755 of the Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) book series. CCIS is abstracted/indexed in Scopus, SCImago, EI-Compendex, Mathematical Reviews, DBLP, Google Scholar.

Click here for more information about the programme, registration and venue.

Conference: Cultural Heritage and New Technologies (Vienna, 8-10 Nov 2017)

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Combining Archaeology, History, and New Technologies

The conference aims to enhance the collaboration between historians and archaeologists and related disciplines using new technologies and to showcase best practice applications in multidisciplinary research.

When: 8-10 November 2017

Where: the Museen der Stadt Wien – Stadtarchäologie, in Vienna, Austria.

Topics cover

  • Application of effective 3D-methods for the reconstruction of buildings, integrating archaeological excavation data with historical sources including images, thus increasing our understanding of the past
  • Additional digital methods for the combined visualisation of archaeological and historical data (e.g. monitoring changes and preservation of archaeological monuments based on historical images).
  • Application of new technologies to assess the archaeological record based on historical data (maps, tax returns, inventories, ship wreck lists, etc.) and/or combining historical sources and archaeological data in a geographical information system for recording the history of urban or rural landscapes.
  • Games, apps, and teaching software integrating archaeological and historical knowledge
  • Historical data as a basis for checking or validating digital tools applied in archaeology and vice versa.
  • Dealing with inscriptions (including cuneiform, hieroglyphs and symbols): digital methods for enhancing readability (e.g. Reflectance Transformation Imaging), pattern recognition of letters or pictograms, comparison of hand writing (same author?).
  • Statistical analysis investigating the correlation between historical place names and archaeological evidence.

 

 

Workshop: Creating Data Management Plans (Birmingham, 29 Nov 2017)

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The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists’ (CIfA) Information Management Special Interest Group (IMSIG) will be hosting a workshop on creating data management plans on Wednesday 29 November.

Location: Comfort Inn, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY  (a 6-minute walk from Birmingham New Street train station)

Lunch, tea and coffee will be provided. Registration will open at 10:30 with the event running from 11-3 with a break in the middle for the AGM over lunch.

 

Data Management – a Life Cycle Approach

The workshop will be built around a series of interactive exercises where participants will investigate a set of data to find the clues they need to populate a data management plan and develop metadata. Participants will re-name the data by applying our file-naming convention and save the data into our MORPHE based folder structure. As the clues come together and the limits of what can be done are reached we hope the exercise will help participants understand the consequences of leaving data management and archiving to the end of projects and why it is essential to adopt a life cycle approach. This workshop will use the ADAPt (Archaeological Digital Archiving Protocol) developed by Claire Tsang and Hugh Corley to support the Excavation & Analysis Teams at Historic England as presented at last year’s CIfA Conference.

Digital Cultural Heritage 2017 (Berlin, 30 Aug- 1 Sep 2017)

Events

The DCH2017 Interdisciplinary Conference on Digital Cultural Heritage takes place at Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Berlin, August 30- September 01, 2017.

Conference topics will cover technical challenges as well as strategic guidance.

Conference aims:

  • raise awareness in Society, Science, and Technology fields about importance of the cultural dimensions and the growing potential of Digital Cultural Heritage;
  • promote innovative content analysis from cross-organizational interoperability of digital humanities databases and XML methods, techniques, and approaches;
  • indicate on the central role of spatial concepts enabling synergy for knowledge generation from massive granular digital cultural heritage content;
  • create innovative cross-disciplines / cross sectors partnerships facilitate intercultural and interdisciplinary dialogue;
  • elaborate roles and interest of information society.

The conference is organised by CODATA Germany

PREFORMA International Conference (Tallinn, 11-12 Oct 2017)

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PREFORMA International Conference – Shaping our future memory standards

National Library of Estonia, Tallinn on 11-12 October 2017.

Aim of the event is to highlight the importance of standardisation and file format validation for the long term preservation of digital cultural content, present the open source conformance checkers developed in PREFORMA and look at future challenges and opportunities.

Hosted by the National Library of Estonia, the conference will include: keynote speeches by international experts in digital preservation; live demonstrations of the software; examples and good practices of memory institutions that are integrating the PREFORMA tools in their environments; and panel discussions to reflect on how to sustain and further develop the results of the project.

The event is intended for anyone dealing with digital preservation of images, documents and audiovisual files. This conference is a great opportunity to ask and exchange with international experts, fellow archivists and even Open Source developers about file format questions, issues and challenges we are facing today.

Archaeological Standards and Guidance – online discussion (10–11 May 2017)

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Archaeological Standards and Guidance – What are they for and who sets them?

The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) held an online discussion on this topic on 10-11 May 2017. Key questions covered:

  1. A new vision for 2017 and beyond? Is the Southport vision is still relevant? Can we construct a new vision for 2017 and beyond? What outcomes do we want to achieve and what should standards therefore contain?
  2. Roles and responsibilities – who sets standards? Many organisations are involved in producing standards and guidance; do we yet have a common understanding about roles and responsibilities or are we all competing with each other? Who should lead on what?
  3. New thinking on methodology and standards – how do we capitalise on the lessons of synthesis projects, and translate them into professional practice?
  4. How much should we be prescribing methods as opposed to seeking outcomes?
  5. Should improving standards make our work more cost-effective or will they add cost?

For more information about this discussion and links to current initiatives within data standards compilation, see: http://www.archaeologists.net/archaeological-standards-and-guidance-what-are-they-and-who-sets-them-online-discussion-10%E2%80%9311-may