OASIS Scotland: Six monthly report 20th April 2010
OASIS was formally adopted for implementation by ALGAO (Scotland) from 1st April 2007. The statistics presented below represent
usage in Scotland up to 20 April 2010.
Waiting for
contractor to
complete
Waiting for
contractor to send
report
Contractor to
complete archive
section
Waiting for HER
to validate
Waiting for HER
to validate- over
one month old
Waiting for
RCAHMS to
validate
Signed off &
complete
Number of
additional records
in system per day
20/04/10
(136 work
days)
245 (+37)
13/10/09
(125 work
days)
208 (+58)
21/04/09
(108 work
days)
150 (+12)
3/12/08
(160 work
days)
138 (+51)
13/04/08
(136 work
days)
87 (+30)
22/10/07
(121 work
days)
57 (+41)
23/04/07
(16 work
days)
16
114 (+8)
106 (+13)
93 (+3)
90 (+69)
21 (+5)
16 (+15)
1
5 (0)
5 (-1)
6 (+1)
5
-
-
-
28 (+13)
15 (0)
15 (-10)
25 (+8)
17 (+6)
11 (+7)
4
171 (+3)
168 (+34)
134 (+20)
114 (+67)
47 (+28)
19 (+19)
-
150 (+150)
0 (-40)
40 (-6)
47 (+46)
1 (-2)
3 (-4)
7
501 (+25)
476 (+140)
336 (+103)
233 (+123)
110 (+59)
51 (+46)
5
1.74
1.65
1.13
2.24
1.0
0.97
2.43
774 (+122)
652(+359)
293 (+136)
157 (+118)
39
Total
1221 (+237) 984 (+206)
Table 1: Status of records within OASIS
1
Figure 1: increase in number of records in OASIS for Scotland since launch (based on information reported at Management Board)
There has been steady use of OASIS over the last six months (figure 1) with 1221 project records submitted through the application
for Scotland. A further 237 records have been added since the last Management Board in October 2009. Adjusting the figures to take
account of the uneven reporting period shows a slight increase in the number of records added per day over the last six months
compared to most of the previous reporting cycles (figure 2).
Figure 2: number of records added to OASIS per workday (x10 exaggeration) based on figures reported to Management Board
2
Status of OASIS records in Scotland
Figure 3: trends in record status over last four reporting cycles, November 2008 to April 2010.
Over the last four reporting periods, the percentage split between records added by the contractor, waiting for validation by the
relevant HER and RCAHMS has remained relatively constant, indicating that there is no significant deviation in the way information
moves through the OASIS application over a prolonged period.
The last reporting period has seen a slight reduction in the number of records awaiting Contractor ‘action’, that is either to complete
the initial report or to attach the grey literature. The number of records awating SMR action remainds consistent and the large number
of records over one month old remains an issue. In contrast to the last reporting period, when there was slight increase in the
percentage of records completed and signed-off, there is a decrease in the overall proportion of completed records and a marked
3
increase in the number of records awaiting validation by RCAHMS. This is primarily due to conflicting priorities of finalizing the
latest volume of Discovery and Excavation in Scotland for the printers in time for the May 2010 publication deadline and the OASIS
reporting period. Accordingly, the number of records completed and signed-off by RCAHMS in this reporting period is significantly
lower than in previous reporting cycles (table 1). As a result, any analysis of the proportions of records signed off by SMR service
(table 2) is skewed by the bottleneck in the workflow.
4
Percentage of records signed off by SMR
13 October 2009
Number
of records
Aberdeenshire,
Angus and Moray
Aberdeen City
Dundee
Edinburgh
Dumfries and
Galloway
East Dunbartonshire
East Lothian,
Midlothian
Falkirk
Fife
Highland
North Lanarkshire
Orkney
Perth and Kinross
Scottish Borders
Shetland
Stirling
Western Isles
WoSAS
Scotland
22 April 2010
Signed
off
Percentage
signed off
Number
of records
Signed
off
Percentage
signed off
Increase/decrease in
completed records since last
report
101
69
9
128
79
67
3
1
78.22
97.1
33.33
0
171
91
10
146
85
72
3
0
49.71
79.12
30
0
-28.51
-17.98
-3.33
0.00
43
30
69.77
54
31
57.41
-12.36
11
3
27.27
13
3
23.08
-4.20
111
13
24
80
11
2
68
38
8
24
35
209
984
77
6
6
16
1
2
23
23
0
11
14
115
476
69.37
46.15
25
20
9.09
100
33.82
60.53
0
45.83
40
55.02
48.374
129
12
30
85
14
4
87
55
9
27
36
248
1221
77
6
6
22
1
2
25
24
0
11
14
119
501
59.69
50
20
25.88
7.143
50
28.74
43.64
0
40.74
38.89
47.98
41.03
-9.68
3.85
-5.00
5.88
-1.95
-50.00
-5.09
-16.89
0.00
-5.09
-1.11
-7.04
-7.34
Table 2: Percentage of records signed-off by SMR Service.
5
The following councils are not currently validating records: City of Edinburgh (training required) and Shetland. Orkney has validated
records submitted through OASIS, however these relate to work on Historic Scotland Properties in Care rather than briefs
commissioned by the local authority archaeologist. Rathmell Archaeology provide archaeological support to North Lanarkshire
Council, however no records have been signed off in the past year.
Grey literature submissions
File transfers by
20th April 2010
24th April 2009
OASIS
297
193
Reports not yet
registered
247
162
Reports sent by other
means
677
425
Reports attached to
OASIS form
Table 3: Numbers of Grey literature reports submitted via OASIS.
6th December
2008
193
21 April 2008
96
22 October
2007
70
156
54
49
307
151
57
The figures provided in table 3 include reports working their way through the system but have not necessarily been signed-off yet.
Some OASIS users have been experiencing difficulty in attaching reports through the system causing a considerable degree of stress
and frustration.
Training and uptake
During this reporting period, the new Western Isles archaeologist was introduced to the OASIS application whilst repeat training
sessions were run in March 2010 for Shetland Amenity Trust staff and the Orkney Islands Council Archaeologist. Additionally, repeat
training was provided for University of the Highlands and Islands Orkney College geophysics unit, students and ORCA.
Following requests from the Scottish SMRs, RCAHMS Scotland’s Rural Past project staff were trained in use of the form. SRP
projects will be added through OASIS in the next few months and there are a small number of first time users who have started using
the form without formal training by RCAHMS. It is not known if they have received guidance from their local SMR service.
6
Quantifying Uptake
Scotland is fortunate in that Archaeology Scotland’s annual publication Discovery and Excavation in Scotland provides summary
accounts of most fieldwork undertaken by commercial archaeology in the preceding year. As such, it provides a useful benchmark for
measuring the uptake of OASIS amongst the professional archaeology community in Scotland. A pilot study quantifying the
proportion of OASIS records against DES entries for 2007 shows that 27.1% of developer funded fieldwork reported in DES had a
corresponding record in OASIS and that 2.9% OASIS records had no equivalent entry in DES.
OASIS and Geophysics
During winter 2009, RCAHMS had the opportunity to contribute to the revised for the Institute of Archaeologists Standards and
Guidance for archaeological geophysical survey. After discussion with the ADS the following form of words covering the reporting of
Geophysical Survey metadata was submitted to the IfAGeosig for inclusion in the revised documentation.
“In addition to the deposition of project reports and archive with the relevant local and national curators, an electronic record of the
project details should be created through OASIS (http://oasis.ac.uk/). The project record should include technical details for each
technique used in the project. Subject to any contractual requirements on confidentiality, copies of the OASIS record will be
integrated into the relevant local and national Records and published through the Archaeology Data Service ArchSearch catalogue.”
Exploratory discussions about inserting the clause more generally into IfA Standards and Guidance documentation indicate a
willingness by the IfA to see OASIS formally recognized as a part of the process of fieldwork reporting.
OASIS and the Marine environment
In association with colleagues at Historic Scotland, English Heritage and RCAHMW, RCAHMS have been in discussion with the
Marine Environment and Data Information Network (MEDIN) about the reporting of archaeological fieldwork to that sector. MEDIN
has a well established series of Digital Archive Centres and heritage is a rather late consideration. MEDIN requires robust metadata
gathering for offshore projects and the existing OASIS application partially appears to meet their requirements.
In a recent draft report into ‘Archiving Archaeological Data to Data Archive Centres’ to MEDIN, Wessex Archaeology recognised
that ‘ OASIS requires an online form to be filled in for each project. Again, this includes some of the information required by the
MEDIN standard.’ However they continue to propose ‘to create metadata according to the MEDIN standard for each survey and
survey event (dataset). Additional forms that would need to be filled in depending on the archiving strategy would need to be taken
into account (for both time and cost). This highlights the need for an archiving strategy to be decided at project conception’.
7
RCAHMS welcomes some of the findings of the report , in particular the acknowledgement that OASIS meets some of the reporting
requirements for archaeological fieldwork in the marine environment but there is a feeling of an opportunity lost in not identifying
how OASIS could be strengthened to address any additional data requirements by MEDIN.
Discovery and Excavation Scotland
In Autumn 2007 the OASIS (Scotland) form was amended to enable contractors to submit their Discovery and Excavation in Scotland
entries online alongside initiating the OASIS record. Some of the major units have welcomed this as it both reduces the amount of
duplication and acts as a prompt in initiating an OASIS record.
Uptake of the option to report DES submissions online remains moderately successful. Some contractors have taken to reporting via
OASIS wholeheartedly and these contributors are generally commencing their OASIS record much earlier in the process than hitherto
seen.
Status of records with DES text in the OASIS system (since launch)
Status of records
6/12/2008
DES text completed by Contractor
3
24/04/ 2009
3
16/10/ 2009
35
20/04/2010
93
Radiocarbon Application
Due to staff changes at the Archaeology Data Service, completion of the Radiocarbon application has been delayed to Spring 2010.
ADS, RCAHMS and Historic Scotland met with the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre at East Kilbride to take the
staff through the application. Having seen the application as it stands, they broadly welcomed the development. Staff provided useful
feedback on the data capture requirements from the laboratory perspective. Once complete, the application will not only streamline
the process of funding the dating of radiocarbon samples through Historic Scotland, but also ensure that radiocarbon dates can, once
again, be reported through Archaeology Scotland’s Discovery and Excavation in Scotland publication. Results will also be made
available through online applications such as the ADS ArchSearch catalogue.
8