Public agencies, CRM firms, individuals, universities, colleges, and other organizations are invited to submit brief proposals explaining the value of the information to be contributed. A wide array of projects will be considered, such as individual projects, regional archives, and thematic research. Grants up to $7,000 will be awarded.

Rapid review of proposals will begin 15 May, 2012 and continue until funds are committed.

Complete details at http://digitalantiquity.org/grants

Basketry: Artifacts (e.g., food and storage baskets, mats, shields, fans, sandals, other plaited or coiled slats/splints/stems/vines/etc., bundles of slats/splints, knotted ties, etc.) made from rigid or semi-rigid plant materials (e.g., grasses, roots, reeds or rushes, split wood).  An example of this is Perishable: Coiled Basket AMNH 29.0/9502 from the Aztec West Ruin: Perishable Artifacts and Pottery from Excavations by the American Museum of Natural History project.

Hide: Artifacts (e.g., blankets or other coverings, clothing, bags, shoes) made from animal skins or pelts. An example of this is Perishable: Hide Piece AZRU8-2927 from the Aztec West Ruin: Perishable Artifacts and Pottery from Excavations by the American Museum of Natural History project.

Textiles: Artifacts (e.g., clothing, bags, woven cloth, cordage, etc.) comprised of fibers and/or cord that are made from plant or animal material (e.g., animal hair, cotton, flax, hemp, other vegetal fibers.  An example of this is Perishable: Cotton Textile AZRU8-2733 from the Aztec West Ruin: Perishable Artifacts and Pottery from Excavations by the American Museum of Natural History project.

As always, Digital Antiquity and tDAR remain committed to the preservation and management of digital data.  We appreciate all input that will assist in making tDAR more accessible and relevant.

Searching:

• Registered users can download the first 1000 records of any search result into an excel spreadsheet.
• Improved accuracy on searches performed with the google maps interface.

User Profiles:

• Improvements to the map and the geocoding of the map data.

Document Support:

• Users can now upload RTF documents along with PDF and Word Documents.
• PDF documents now include a cover page with a complete citation.

Data Set Support:

• Users are now able to preview datasets once they’ve been uploaded to tDAR.  This includes:
  • an interface to page through the dataset’s contents.
  • the ability to view the archival metadata describing each column of the dataset.
  • improved validation and parsing support of the metadata describing each column.
• Support for TAB separated files.

Library and Technology Related Features:

• DOIs are now assigned for all tDAR resources with files attached.
• tDAR is now an Open Archives (OAI-PMH) compliant provider. Basic metadata for tDAR records can now be downloaded via the OpenArchives protocol (OAI-PMH).
• A published Schema for tDAR records is now available at http://core.tdar.org/schema/current.
• Support for per-instance themes.
• Support for LDAP Authentication and Authorization.
• Tools for Authority Management.

Participate in a tDAR Workshop:

On Wednesday, April 18 and Saturday, April 21 from 1 – 4 PM, Digital Antiquity will present an intensive workshop entitled “Using tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record) to Improve Your Professional Productivity.” The workshop will use tDAR as a lens to focus on issues of data sharing, maintaining confidentiality, citation and fair use, public engagement, and digital preservation. Digital Antiquity instructors will demonstrate the basic use of tDAR to participants, who are encouraged to bring their own sample images and data to upload during the session. Attendance is free of additional charge, but is limited to 30 persons per session (one Wednesday and one Saturday) and requires pre-registration online or via mail or fax using the advance registration form. Don’t forget to register by March 17 to receive discounts on the normal meeting fee as well as some workshops and outings!

Visit the Booth:

Don’t forget to visit us at the tDAR booth (#615) in the Exhibit Hall open from 9-5 April 19-21!

Attend one of the forums:

Digital Antiquity will also be hosting a Forum on Sunday, April 22 from 8 AM – 12 PM called “Using the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) for Management, Research and Education.” Discussants include researchers from a variety of backgrounds who have used tDAR for their academic research, through Digital Antiquity grants, and for their doctoral dissertation research. This forum requires no additional registration—we hope to see you there!

Digital Antiquity will be co-hosting a Forum with the Archaeology Data Service in the UK on Thursday, April 19^th in the evening called “Digital Data Standards and ‘Best Practices’ Needed for Access to and Preservation of Archaeological Information.” This forum will focus on the recently updated Guides to Good Practice, and improving preservation and access of archaeological information.

Digital Antiquity Staff will also be contributing to the following SAA Events:

• The Impact of Special Purpose Institutions on the Future of Archaeology
• Digital Data Standards and “Best Practices” Needed for Access to and Preservation of Archaeological Information
• The Future of Archaeological Publishing
• Virtual Archaeology: The Creation, Dissemination, and Use of Virtualized Artifacts, Sites, Assemblages, and Archives
• Mortuary Practices in the American Southwest: Patterns and Inference from Regional Databases
• Capacity-Building for Archaeology in the 21^st Century: How will People Manage the Information Explosion

Remember, even if you are not able to make it out to Memphis this year, you can still explore and use tDAR by registering, browsing and searching today.

Remote Sensing: Investigations that involve the use of aerial or satellite sensor technologies to detect, describe, or classify objects on Earth (e.g. LIDAR, photographic, radar, or spectral methods).  An example of this is Archeological Monitoring, Installation of Fire Suppression System, Fort Scott National Historic Site.

Geophysical Survey: Investigations that rely on ground-based instrument sensing techniques to create images and/or maps for archaeological research (e.g. magnetometry, resistivity, or ground penetrating radar). An example of this is A Geophysical Investigation of the Parade Ground at Fort Jefferson.

Heritage Management: Studies and plans related to managing or planning for the care, interpretation, preservation, or protection of archaeological resources, including collections, records, and sites.  An example of this is NPS: Ruins Stabilization in the Southwestern United States.

As always, Digital Antiquity and tDAR remain committed to the preservation and management of digital data.  We appreciate all input that will assist in making tDAR more accessible and relevant.

Collections:

• A new way to organize and display resources. Collections can be stacked or nested to allow you to organize resources. You can add a name, description, and sort-order to your collections.
• Share, collections also simplify the way that you can share resources with other users. It enables you to assign a user or set of users permissions and then assign a set of users to that collection. This should simplify managing rights for resources.

• research and practice in digital archiving of archaeological materials,
• policy and other challenges facing the preservation of archaeological results,
• advanced uses of tDAR,
• research projects funded by the DA-tDAR Grants Program, and
• major data accessions or partnerships.

The Reports series is free of charge and available on the Digital Antiquity website.

The first two Reports have been published and include, “Building tDAR: Review, Redaction, and Ingest of Two Reports Series” (J. Watts, June 2011) and “Policies, Preservation, and Access to Digital Resources: The Digital Antiquity 2010 National Repositories Survey” (J. Watts, September 2011). The first paper focuses on the process of preparing pre-existing archaeological reports for and ingesting them to tDAR, discussing especially the problems presented by a series of reports spanning thirty years of archaeological work and publication. The second is geared toward an analysis of the present state of digital archaeological preservation and access on the national scale, and helps to explain many of the challenges associated with the management of legacy digital resources.

If you are interested in submitting to Reports in Digital Archaeology, please contact Digital Antiquity.

This major addition to the software represents the fruition of several months of effort on the part of Digital Antiquity staff—the over 358,000 citations had to be processed into tDAR records through the scrutiny of existing and the creation of new metadata. The NADB acquisition not only represents a great undertaking on the part of Digital Antiquity, but also a milestone in tDAR growth through the ingest of US records spanning the breadth and depth of the North American archaeological record.

Do you have a report in NADB, or a correction? If so, Digital Antiquity would love to reconnect the original work with the current NADB citation–please contact us and we’ll update it. Of course, we also encourage all tDAR users to browse and search for these records, as well as provide feedback on the new additions.

The presentation, part of a paper session on topics ranging from Roman funeral spectacle to digital resource sustainability, highlighted the fact that tDAR is a tool for information access, a repository for preservation, and a research and practice resource. Each of these facets was visually explained in greater detail: information access through several key screenshots of uploaded resources and data input pages; preservation through a flowchart of how files and file formats are migrated and maintained.

The focus of the presentation demonstrated the new user interface and functionality built into the data integration tools.  tDAR’s data integration and mapping features enable archaeologist-friendly data synthesis and comparison for data sets within tDAR. These include a new drag-and-drop interface for data integration and the display of a pivot-table style summary of results when integration is complete.  After the presentation, a short video was shown in order to demonstrate to conference attendees the ease of using the tDAR interface.

We are looking forward to feedback from Digital Humanities attendees and from our readers. Let us know what you thought of the presentation and demo by sending us your comments and suggestions.