|
|
GIS Guide to Good Practice |
|
|
5.1 Why document your data?
Working with your Geographic Information System on a regular basis as you do,
you probably have a pretty good idea about what it contains, the area of the
country it covers, and what its major strengths and weaknesses are likely to
be. You know, for example, that your data cover the city of York, that period
information is only stored to the nearest century, and that the aerial
photographic interpretation to the south–west of the city is a bit dubious. Data offered to the ADS, however, may potentially be used by researchers from
many different parts of the planet, and with widely varied levels of expertise.
They have no way of knowing anything at all about your data unless you
tell them. In order to make sure that the maximum amount of information is delivered to
the user whilst involving you, the depositor, in minimal effort, the
Archaeology Data Service has developed a number of procedures to standardise
and simplify the documentation process. Some form of record about your data — and about what you've done to it
— is also, of course, undoubtedly useful within your own organisation.
Even using data every day, it is still possible to forget about where
some of it came from, or how the data you currently used were
originally compiled from various sources. This guide introduces the issues relevant to both types of documentation, as
well as discussing the detail relevant to one or the other. |
|
The right of Mark Gillings, Peter Halls, Gary Lock, Paul Miller, Greg Phillips, Nick Ryan, David Wheatley, and Alicia Wise to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All material supplied via the Arts and Humanities Data Service is protected by copyright, and duplication or sale of all or part of any of it is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for your personal research use or educational purposes in electronic or print form. Permission for any other use must be obtained from the Arts and Humanities Data Service(info@ahds.ac.uk). Electronic or print copies may not be offered, whether for sale or otherwise, to any third party.
|
|
