Congratulations to our colleague, Dr. Paul Green, Cultural Resources Specialist for the East Region Support Team (RST), part of the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center.  The Secretary of Defense has recognized Paul’s excellent professional work with the 2015 Department of Defense Cultural Resources Management award.

At Digital Antiquity we are particularly happy to learn of this award and that one of the many major accomplishments for which his service is recognized involved a program that we have had a hand in.  Paul had a key role in establishing

Together with Dr. Jim Wilde, Archaeologist and Cultural Resource Management Subject Matter Expert at the US Air Force Environmental Center, Paul is overseeing the continuing growth of important documents, data, images, and other digital data in tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record).

More information about the US Air Force digital archive in tDAR is available at: https://www.tdar.org/news/2014/03/shaw-afb-and-avon-park-afr-archaeology-archives-now-in-tdar/; and https://www.tdar.org/news/2013/02/digital-antiquity-announces-the-dyess-air-force-base-archaeology/.

About the Secretary of Defense Environmental Awards program (from the Cultural Resource Update Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 4-5): Since 1962, the Department of Defense Environmental awards have honored individuals, teams, and installations for their outstanding achievements and innovative work protecting the environment while sustaining mission readiness.  A diverse panel of judges with relevant expertise representing federal and state agencies, academia, and the private sector evaluated all nominees to select one winner for each of the nine categories that cover six subject areas: natural resources conservation; environmental quality; sustainability; environmental restoration; cultural resources management; and environmental excellence in weapon system acquisition.

The Cultural Resources Management award recognizes individuals and teams making significant and lasting contributions to DoD CRM. This award acknowledges efforts to promote cultural resources stewardship in DoD by highlighting outstanding management activities and showcasing DoD’s extensive cultural resources, including archaeological sites, the historic built environment, and cultural landscapes. Desired initiatives include partnering with external stakeholders such as Native Americans, SHPOs, and local communities, and working with internal stakeholders in the areas of master planning, public works, and range management.  More information on the Awards can be found at: http://www.denix.osd.mil/awards/FY14SECDEF.cfm.

We’ve got great news! We have reduced prices significantly. As of 14 July 2015, it costs only $10 to upload a single file (up to 10MB) to tDAR. This is a significant decrease compared to the former price of $50 per file.

In recent months, we undertook a careful evaluation of operating costs and reviewed the consistent stream of new tDAR clients and DIY digital preservation customers.  Based on these factors, The Center for Digital Antiquity’s Board of Directors and Arizona State University’s financial administrators approved a significant reduction in price to upload digital content to tDAR for long term access, discoverability, and preservation.

This change will be of interest particularly for contributors who upload small quantities of digital files and create the metadata records on their own. Larger clients also will benefit because the low rate of $5/file now applies for purchases of 100 or more files. Check out the full new price list below or visit our new pricing page.

*Each tDAR file comes with 10MB of space.  To upload digital resources larger than 10MB simply purchase additional tDAR files.

You can easily purchase exactly the number of files and storage space that you need using our price calculator and your credit card just like before.  Of course, our digital curators, project managers, and technical staff are always happy to work with you on a customized project for an hourly rate as well. 
 
Digital preservation fees fund the long-term care of files in tDAR; access to public data and protection of confidential information; data security; customer service; and, advocacy and professional training for proper digital curation of all archaeological materials.

tDAR is a domain repository in which data and information about and from archaeological resources, investigations, and related topics. In tDAR, data and information are curated, discoverable, accessible, and preserved for future use.  tDAR is developed and maintained by the Center for Digital Antiquity, a not-for-profit center at Arizona State University.
 
Our promise to broaden the access to archaeological data and dedication ensuring preservation will continue to thrive with your support!

Recently over 200 reports of archaeological investigations in South Carolina were added to tDAR by the Office of the State Archaeologist, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA).  Dr. Jonathan Leader and several of his students created a tDAR collection that is organized to hold all the archaeological grey literature and related data for South Carolina from the last 50 years. Within the statewide collection, reports are organized by county with the majority of reports so far included from Aiken, Charleston, and Beaufort counties, but other reports from around the state also can be found.  The plan is to build content using this geographic framework.

Leader and his team have uploaded both complete reports, for which access can be requested by contacting his office, and redacted versions of the reports.  The latter are available through tDAR to registered tDAR users.

This project, enabling easier access to archaeological information, is expected to alleviate a large number of time-consuming requests.  The intent is to provide a major research tool for people conducing archaeological work and historical research in South Carolina and the adjacent states. Numerous groups and teams of people will benefit from these available records including, researchers, land stewards, county planners, agency staff (state, local federal), non-profits, tribal archaeology and preservation organizations, educators, and interested members of the public.

The Center for Digital Antiquity is pleased to have worked with the  Office of the State Archaeologist on this use of tDAR to provide a means of managing South Carolina’s archaeological data. We look forward to collaborating on additional future projects with SCIAA and other State Archaeologist offices and SHPOs.

In collaboration with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Digital Antiquity has begun a partnership to include tDAR’s Arctic data into the NSIDC’s Arctic Data Explorer. The Arctic Data Explorer is a web application that searches for research data across a number of repositories. Including data from tDAR furthers Digital Antiquity’s mission of enabling discovery and use of digital archaeological data. The new functionality in Arctic Data Explorer ensures that when scientists search for Arctic data, archaeological data will be discovered alongside interdisciplinary data from NOAA, NASA, USGS and other repositories. Try a search now and let the Arctic Data Explorer team know what you think (contact Digital Antiquity at comments@tdar.org or NSIDC at support@aoncadis.org).

Excitement is in the air at Arizona State University as graduation is upon us. One of our very own, Mike Karam, will receive his Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from ASU today. The staff at The Center for Digital Antiquity has been fortunate to work with Mike, an undergraduate Research Apprentice, since August 2014. He excelled in his work on improving the content of archaeological data in tDAR, specifically improving access and preserving legacy data from the Dolores Archaeological Program. Mike also updated over 30 other digital files and metadata records within tDAR. He greatly enhanced the content of tDAR and provided other tDAR users with more detailed information about important archaeological investigations. Congratulations, to Mike and his family, from all of us at The Center for Digital Antiquity!

We are gearing up for the San Francisco SAA meetings and we want to see you!   You can find us at our booth in the exhibit hall (#501) from 9AM to 5PM Thursday through Saturday. 

We have a lot to share—first and foremost, if you haven’t seen tDAR live and in action one of our expert digital curators will be able to walk you through finding materials in the archive, as well as the simple steps necessary to preserve a digital file.  We can discuss how to go about conceptualizing and creating a digital archive, or how to organize your materials in tDAR. 

If you are a presenter at this year’s SAAs we have an exciting opportunity for you to experience contributing to tDAR at no cost.  All 2015 SAA abstracts will be available in tDAR as citation records.  Presenters are able to upload a copy of the presentation and associated data (up to 3 files totaling 30MB) to tDAR.  Stop by the booth  and we’ll walk you through the upload process or provide you with instructions for completing the upload at a later date. This is a great opportunity to share and preserve your archaeological data!

Budgeting your digital data archive can be a challenge, but we are here to help.  Ask any of our staff for guidance on developing a budget for a grant proposal or scope of work that will ensure all of the digital material you generate is properly cared for in perpetuity.   We’d be delighted to tell you about our new, reduced rates for long-term digital curation!

Where else can you find us?

Booth: The Center for Digital Antiquity and the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR), Thursday-Saturday 9AM to 5PM, Exhibit Hall #501

Workshop: Best Practices for the Curation of Digital Archaeological Data and Information, Francis McManamon, Jodi Reeves Flores, and Leigh Anne Ellison, Wednesday 1-5PM, Continental Ballroom Parlor 3 (advance registration required)

Forum: Diverse Digital Archaeologies, Francis McManamon, Thursday 8-10AM, Union Square 25

Forum: The Prospects and Challenges of Faunal Data Integration and Comparative Analysis, Katherine Spielmann and Keith Kintigh, Thursday 1-3PM, Golden Gate 1

Poster: Best Practices for Good Digital Curation, Francis McManamon and Julian Richards, Thursday 6-8PM, Grand Ballroom A

Poster: Evaluating a Cooperative Approach to the Management of Digital Archaeological Records (ECAMDAR): A Defense Legacy Project Assessing tDAR for the Department of Defense, Sara Rivers Cofield and Jodi Reeves Flores, Thursday 6-8PM, Grand Ballroom A

Poster: Synthesizing Legacy Data: Using tDAR’s Data Integration Tool, Leigh Anne Ellison and Adam Brin, Thursday 6-8PM, Grand Ballroom A

Poster: The Digital Legacy of Public Archaeology in the Phoenix Basin, Arizona, Lauren Jelinek, Jon Czaplicki, and M. Scott Thompson, Thursday 6-8PM, Grand Ballroom A

Paper: Managing ‘A Mountain’ of Rock Art Digital Data, Jodi Reeves Flores and M. Scott Thompson, Saturday 3:30PM, Imperial Ballroom A

We’ve also got new swag and great giveaways.  Visit our booth in the exhibit hall early to secure your Digital Antiquity sticker or tDAR jump drive, and enter to win one of our daily giveaways that include books, digital storage media, and a grand prize digital preservation package in tDAR!

Modern archaeological investigations both produce and rely upon digital data: photographs taken in the field, GIS information, analytical and descriptive data sets, project reports, etc. These new data add to an existing, although underutilized, backlog of archaeological information, some of it in digital formats, some not. Without a well thought-out approach to data management, important information, whether in digital formats or not, will be overlooked or lost because it is forgotten, misplaced or damaged. Good digital data management requires attention to the means of data storage, aspects of archiving data, how data are to be preserved, and the curation of data so that is discoverable, accessible, and usable.

Digital Antiquity Staff will be hosting a workshop at the 2015 Society for American Archaeology meetings in San Francisco, on the background of data management, how good data management is organized, and tools and methods that they can integrate into their existing project and research workflows to ensure good management of digital data. Participants in the workshop will be introduced to the types of digital repositories that are available and where they can browse, access and download archaeological documents, data sets, images, and other kinds of archaeological information. Archaeologists, whether they work in CRM, for government agencies, or in academic positions, can use digital repositories to store, organize, and promote their archaeological work.

The workshop will focus on case studies and examples in tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record). Participants will learn how to access and use resources in the repository and curate and manage CRM reports, data sets, photographs, GIS files, and other archaeologically relevant digital resources. Participants will need to bring their own laptop computer with wireless capabilities and a file (such as a report, dissertation, dataset, etc.) to upload to tDAR as part of the workshop.

Participants will receive a voucher for one free file (up to 10 MB) and a free copy of Caring for Digital Data in Archaeology: A Guide to Good Practice (for a total value of $80).

We also encourage you to stop by our booth in the exhibit hall.  Digital Antiquity staff will be on hand all week to answer your questions and give you a personalized tour of tDAR.  You can even sign up in advance for a 15 minute meeting with one of us to ensure you don’t have to wait!  Click here to access the calendar and select your time.