Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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The recorded contexts provide the material to populate the research environment, they are
stored <strong>in</strong> the Integrated Archaeological Data Base (IADB), which is an onl<strong>in</strong>e database system
for manag<strong>in</strong>g record<strong>in</strong>g, analysis, archiv<strong>in</strong>g and onl<strong>in</strong>e publication of archaeological f<strong>in</strong>ds,
contexts and plans. In the past the entry of data on to the IADB has been undertaken manually.
There are around 1000 contexts recorded each season, which means that manual <strong>in</strong>put of the
data and <strong>in</strong>formation is very time consum<strong>in</strong>g (Baker et al. 2008).
One of the challenges of the VERA project, therefore, was to f<strong>in</strong>d a way to make the process of
record<strong>in</strong>g contexts and enter<strong>in</strong>g them <strong>in</strong>to the database more efficient. As their ideal, they cite Gary
Lock’s goal of archaeological comput<strong>in</strong>g, where “the <strong>in</strong>formation flows seamlessly from excavation,
through post-excavation to publication and archive” (Lock 2003, as cited <strong>in</strong> Baker et al. 2008).
The VERA team asked archaeologists to complete diaries while <strong>in</strong> the field, conducted one-to-one
<strong>in</strong>terviews and a workshop, and implemented user test<strong>in</strong>g with the IADB. In the diary study of 2007,
they asked archaeologists about their experience us<strong>in</strong>g digital technology dur<strong>in</strong>g the excavation
process. They met with a fair amount of resistance both to keep<strong>in</strong>g diaries and us<strong>in</strong>g new technology,
and many participants noted the unreliability of wi-fi <strong>in</strong> the field. Another important <strong>in</strong>sight from the
<strong>in</strong>terviews was that data quality was of the highest importance, and some archaeologists observed that
the direct entry of contexts <strong>in</strong>to the database often led to lower-quality data. In the first excavation,
field workers were enter<strong>in</strong>g data directly <strong>in</strong>to the IADB without the traditional quality-control layer,
but <strong>in</strong> the second field season, paper record<strong>in</strong>g of contexts was re<strong>in</strong>troduced, with the “small f<strong>in</strong>ds
supervisor” collat<strong>in</strong>g context reports and enter<strong>in</strong>g them herself. The diary study thus “illustrated the
importance of ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g exist<strong>in</strong>g mechanisms for check<strong>in</strong>g and controll<strong>in</strong>g data” (Baker et al. 2008).
Nonetheless, the use of digital pens was rated very highly and did speed enter<strong>in</strong>g of some contexts <strong>in</strong>to
the IADB. 253 At the same time, the pens were not able to digitally capture all data (43 percent) from
the excavation season directly <strong>in</strong>to the IADB on the first pass (Fulford et al. 2010, 25). This study thus
also demonstrated the importance of a will<strong>in</strong>gness to both try and possibly abandon new technologies
and to test real discipl<strong>in</strong>ary workflows <strong>in</strong> the development of the VRE.
Interviews and user test<strong>in</strong>g of the IADB provided the VERA team with other important <strong>in</strong>formation,
<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the need to make the <strong>in</strong>terface more <strong>in</strong>tuitive and for the database design team to warn users
before implement<strong>in</strong>g broad system changes. Three themes that ran through all the research conducted
by Baker et al. were the need for data quality, transparency of data trails, and “ease of use of
technologies.”
Fulford et al. (2010) ultimately concluded that both VERA and OGHAM had enhanced the work of the
Silchester Roman Town project:
The OGHAM and VERA projects have unquestionably strengthened and improved the flow of
data, both field and f<strong>in</strong>ds records, from the trench to the database, where they can be
immediately accessed by the research team. The greater the speed by which these data have
become available, the faster the research manipulation of those data can be undertaken, and the
faster the consequent presentation of the <strong>in</strong>terpreted field record to the wider research team.
The challenge is now to determ<strong>in</strong>e whether the same speed can be achieved with the research
team of specialist analysts (Fulford et al. 2010, 26).
253 For greater detail on these studies, see Warwick et al. (2009).