Who is involved in the OASIS project?

The SMRs who have agreed to participate in the pilot project are as follows:

Babtie			Milton Keynes		South Gloucestershire
Black Country			Norfolk		South Yorkshire
Buckinghamshire			Northamptonshire		Warwickshire
Cheshire			Northumberland		West Berkshire
Cumberland			Oxfordshire		City of York
Greater London			Peterborough City		Yorkshire Dales National Park
Leicestershire			Shropshire

What are the aims of the pilot?

The aims of the pilot are

1. To test the viability of the form and to check that it has the right fields to suit SMRs and Units;
   
   
2. To investigate how SMRs and Units wish to export the information contained in the form and use it in their own databases;
   
   
3. To investigate the possibility of attaching 'grey literature' to the index level record of the archive and making that 'grey literature' available over the web;
   
   
4. To consider the flow of information from the Units via the SMR to the NMR.

How does the validation process undertaken by the SMRs and the NMR join up?

This is one of the areas we hope to explore during the course of the pilot and is closely linked with the issues surrounding flow of information. We are already thinking about making changes to the way in which the information is sent from one partner to another by investigating the possibility that once the form has been completed to the satisfaction of the contractor it is then submitted to the database and automated email messages can be generated to alert the different stakeholders to the existence of a new record. Monument records then participate in checking and enhancing the records on-line. Some may have a validation role in checking for the accuracy of the interpretation, or the correct use of terminology. For example, SMR officers may import an edited version into the county or regional record. The NMR will check for appropriate use of standardised terms and will import the data into the NMR Excavation Index. It is recognised that the diversity of local practices will mean that the information flow may vary according to region and the OASIS form and database holdings module have to be flexible enough to accommodate the various roles required by the different organisations involved. This amendment to the information flow means that we have to make some changes to the technology underlying the OASIS form. This process may take some time, but we are hopeful that we will be able to trial the new information flow with a few of the partners in the last two months of the pilot.

Where do the museums community come into all this?

It is understood that the museums community may also find the OASIS form of use as an index to the collections held across England and potentially have an interest in taking part in the pilot project. Rather than including a range of museums as OASIS partners at this stage, during the course of the pilot we will be working with a few museums to assess their reaction to the form and see if it can be of use to the museum community.

How do we attach grey literature to the OASIS form, what effect does this have on IPR and Copyright?

At the moment grey literature cannot be attached to the OASIS form as an e-mail attachment. During the course of the pilot we will be looking at the possibility of attaching 'grey literature' to the OASIS form. This will mean some change to the underlying technology of the form and we will probably trial this aspect of the pilot from November 2002. Should grey literature be attached to the form and made available over the Internet, then copyright issues would need to be addressed. Depositors of data (such as grey literature reports) are asked to sign a deposit licence. This is a non-exclusive licence, which ensures that copyright in the original data is not transferred and provides other safeguards for the depositor such as requesting acknowledgement in any publications arising from future research using the data. At least in the first instance, who holds the copyright for attached grey literature would have to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. The version of the index records which currently appears in Archsearch as the English Heritage Excavation Index, is the copyright of the NMR.

At what stage in the process do the SMRs receive an OASIS record?

For the purposes of the pilot it is hoped that the OASIS form will be used at least once for each project, at the report submission phase. We appreciate that allocation of SMR numbers come at different times for different SMRs, so local arrangements may have to be put in place.

What do I do if I have comments about the OASIS form?

We have already started work to change the form to take into account comments received at workshops held in York and London. Some of these we can do easily now, others may take some time. We would ask you therefore to work with the form as it is and we hope that you will notice the changes as the pilot progresses. If you have specific comments, please contact us by email.

What do we do next?

We will be asking the SMRs involved in the pilot to include in their briefs, before the end of July, a request that units working in the area use the OASIS form to report. An example of the type of paragraph which they may wish to include will be e-mailed to SMR pilot partners separately. We appreciate that it may take some time for the first OASIS forms to filter through but we are going to officially start the six month trial on 1st August 2002.

How is the pilot progressing?

Over 50 OASIS forms have been successfully filled in and submitted by a number of different units across the country.

What changes have been made (marked with a *) or are planned for the form?

Project details section

• Under project details the pull down list used to describe the 'type of project' will be expanded to include both Exegesis definitions and those definitions used by AIP.
• Under project details there will be a site status list which will have an 'other' button which means that individual terms may be added. This will automatically update the pull down list, which will then include the new term.
• Under project details there will be a section for 'land use' which uses the same terms as the AIP project.
• When describing monuments and artefacts, it will be possible to input more than five items, there is a link here to the monument thesaurus from which a term can be used. Alternatively there is a free-text option for use of a locally appropriate term.
• Under project details there is extra room for the inclusion of more identifiers associated with the project. *
• The 'project date' section has been moved into the project details page and will have a fixed input format.

When do we get feedback about the project?

All participating SMRs are invited to attend a feedback session in York on 12th February 2003, prior to which feedback questionnaires will be circulated for your comments.