(Post presentation questions and comments - in italicised type following each abstract - are based on notes taken at the meeting and extracts from the conversation on the MS Teams 'chat' facility. Powerpoints for all of the presentations - with the exception of the update on Covid-19 response in Scotland - can be viewed on the HER Forum JiscMail file store).   

In December 2019, I welcomed people back to the familiar haunts of the Birmingham and Midland Institute after a summer meeting in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but this would not be a return to normality. The Covid19 epidemic led to the next summer meeting being cancelled and, as it became clear that the winter meeting could also not be held in person, an online meeting was arranged. About 85 people were present for the event.

The first presentation covered an update on HIAS from Marion Page together with information on the roll out of training for Oasis V. This was followed by Richard Hoggett, who spoke about the review of the Rapid Coastal Zone Assessments that had been undertaken.

After a short break, Jim Sallis gave an update on the work he has been doing with volunteers using photogrammetry and ‘drone’ survey to record monuments.

Finally, Marion Page, Rhonda Robinson, Ian Scrivener-Lindley, Nina Steele and Charina Jones reported on the effects that the epidemic had had on the HERs and related historic environment services in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Updates were provided on the following HIAS projects: 

NRHE-HER Transfer Programme: Good progress has been made and 16 HERs are now in the programme of which three have completed the transfer. Funding for two more projects were recently approved and there are discussions with other HERs that are in the process of developing bids. There is now an open call and applications can be submitted at any time with funding   available until the end of the 2025/6 financial year.

PastScape, HE research records and Heritage Gateway: In line with HIAS Principle 1, once a NRHE –HER transfer project has been completed HE will turn off the HE record. The first stage of turning off HE records will be the decommissioning of PastScape on 17 December 2020 (N.B. now postponed to early 2021).There are also mechanism in place for turning off the corresponding records on the Heritage Gateway that have been accessioned by the HERs. Non-accessioned ones appear as HE research records. HE is also working on redirects from PastScape. Following feedback from users it has been decided that we won’t turn off any HE records on the Gateway until these re-directs are in place.

Heritage Gateway Development: On 4 December 2020 we shared ideas with the HG Partnership Board on how to take the development of a new Heritage Gateway forward and one option is that of a Heritage Interface. This option would to bring the HG in line with Historic England’s vision to connect to its own systems via linked data. Starting from that, this will be reviewed by various boards including the HIAS Programme Board in January 2021. We will then pick up conversations with HG data and technical providers. 

Reference Data Management module: With the impending decommissioning of the AMIE platform, HE’s KOS developed a standalone database to maintain access to the csv exports for a 2-year period from January 2021. This database is only an interim solution until the Enhanced Reference Data Management Module goes live. The Enhanced RDM will provide vocabularies in SKOS and ISO 25964-compliant xml. The RDM is being developed using the Arches Platform but through APIs and Web-services, will be capable of interacting with external, non-Arches systems. The system is planned to go live in financial year 2021-2022. As KOS will be maintaining the interim solution for 2 years from January 2021 there will be a period of overlap before the switch is made to the RDM. We believe this timeframe is sufficient notice for developers to modify their systems to be capable of ingesting SKOS. 

OASIS V support workshops: 

Historic England have commissioned MSDS Marine and Ashtree Heritage to provide support workshops for the rollout of the new Online Access to the Index of Investigations (OASIS) system that was launched in October 2020 as OASIS V.

Workshops will provide training and support to the whole sector to promote the new system and provide training in its use. Workshops are targeted at users within England and are all CIfA CPD approved. The series of workshops has been targeted at different users. Booking is through the Eventbrite website. Current courses are listed on the following website:

https://msdsmarine.com/projects/training/oasis-v-rollout-support/. 

This presentation summarises the results of the first systematic review of the ongoing Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (RCZAS) programme, which has recently been published in the Historic England Research Reports series (260/2020). This review assessed the availability and uses of RCZAS data and reports, and evaluated how effective the RCZAS programme has been in terms of recording and improving the management of coastal heritage assets. Its findings are informed by the extensive published outputs and archives produced by the RCZAS, and engagement with a wide range of RCZAS data-managers and report-users, as well as key stakeholders, many of whom have contributed to its findings via online questionnaires, telephone interviews and face-to-face meetings. 

The published report includes a series of recommendations to improve the impact of the RCZAS programme, with a particular focus on the integration of the new heritage data generated by the RCZAS programme into coastal HERs. The report can be downloaded from: 

The project constitutes part of a professional doctorate (a programme of study based on practical foundations). Its primary focus concerns aerial imaging and the harnessing of drone technology. Its objectives seek to gather together and integrate thoughts and considerations drawn from the local level (although the research has evident overlapping potential for those with a custodial responsibility for the management of heritage sites in both the statutory and non-statutory contexts).

The initiative is in receipt of no official funding and functions in co-operation with local community ventures, supporting itself within an ad hoc framework of reciprocity and funding in kind. Overarching aims include local capacity building and empowerment and the harnessing of community skills to engender change. It seeks at this stage to co-create community guidance within the sphere, to act as a path-finder and to serve as a conduit to develop best practice and spread awareness. 

The practical aspects of the project are based on photogrammetry and the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of the information derived from it. The use of digital imaging and the availability of computer software to allow its interpretation have made this area far more accessible than ever before and most participants are using their own laptops and other equipment to gather and process the material. Drone fliers also now need a ‘flier ID’ issued by the Civil Aviation Authority. 

It was originally planned that a data collection phase would take place in March 2020 but, in the event, this was postponed until August and September. Primary contributors at this stage are 5 members of a group in Lincolnshire. Their pilot study has chosen to use a ground-based approach initially, to allow the exploration of the basic principles involved.  A total of three local groups are participating at this stage with other groups at work in Derbyshire and Cumbria. 

So far, initial findings might be summarised as follows:

Motivation amongst the groups involved has been high and participants have proved happy with the idea of contributing to local historical records.

Existing skill sets can be developed and enhanced.

The potential exists to build upon previous community projects: most people have been interested in ideas relating to technology and free and open source software (FOSS) and participants have embraced the digital aspects of the studies well. 

Evident challenges included: 

Photogrammetry makes quite intensive demands on computers, resulting in some older devices and those with lower specifications being unable to cope. Also, some groups became frustrated at the length of time required to produce reconstructions. 

The IT skills which individuals have brought to the project varied tremendously. Some had only a basic knowledge of quite fundamental issues, for example folder management. 

The open source software employed proved to have limited tolerance to poor image acquisition techniques.  

The expectations of participants require careful management. 

Over the course of the epidemic from March 2020 data on the impact of Covid-19 on HERs in England (83 in total) was collected by the Historic England Heritage Information Partnerships (HIPs) team. This was undertaken through calls to the HER Forum, video calls, direct e-mails and reports given by HERs at regional meetings. Data was also collected through the Annual HER Survey (carried out by HIPs between April and June 2020). The results can be summarised as follows:

Looking at the situation regarding HER resilience to the crisis: The majority (63%) of HERs had only very minor or no issues regarding service continuity. Statistically, those with a Business Continuity Plan fared 20% better than others. The average staffing level for those HERs that were not impacted was 1.4 FTE compared 1.1 FTE for those that were. There were, however, some evident regional variations in the impact on HERs with those in the north west, Yorkshire and Humber and the East Midlands faring worse than those in other areas.        

As the national heritage body for Northern Ireland, access to the HER was required for planning, for protecting monuments in state care and the provision of excavation licences. The building in which it was housed was, however, closed for an extended time and is still only accessible on a limited basis. 

Looking for benefits in the enforced situation, it was evident that commercial contractors saw this as an opportunity to deal with a reporting backlog. A deluge of archaeological reports has been received and these are now being processed onto the HER. 

Unfortunately, whilst this time of year is usually propitious for employing temporary staff using any departmental underspend, this has of course been impossible. There is an additional consideration relating to the possible relocation of the record. The lease on the building in which it is accommodated is just about to come to a close (probably resulting in HER staff returning to the aegis of Historic Environment section). It remains to be seen whether the current circumstances will place any new perspectives on this move.

Previously the need for constant physical access to the content of the record has apparently been self-evident. After functioning for nearly 10  months remotely, however, this may be open to question. The ‘merits' of a move to Public Records are being evaluated. This might have advantages in terms of improved access and facilities.           

Scotland (Ian Scrivener-Lindley)   

    

There are similarities between the situation in Scotland to that experienced in England. 

At the Shetland HER – managed by a community heritage trust – the sole staff member was placed on furlough. Whilst they have now returned there are still some uncertainties attached to the accessibility of the record.

The building accommodating the West of Scotland HER has been closed and staff have had no access to files. (Whilst they have now returned to their offices the some elements of the HER are still inaccessible).  

 

East and Midlothian HER were without live access to their database and have only been able to work using an offline version.

 

The decision at Highland Council that the HER officer should work from home coincided with an IT refresh which meant that it was possible to access the entire HER, including its files and the GIS, remotely. These advantages were counterbalanced by the fact that volunteers, who are dependent on being able to access the office, were unable to one continue their activities.  (Although IT equipment has been found and issued to one volunteer contributor, on a temporary basis, allowing them to work from home). 

All Scottish HERs are presently complying with Scottish Government advice to work from home if at all possible. It will be interesting to see how the situation develops. Highland Council is set to review its office working arrangements, something that may well result in more working from home and possibly a reduction in office capacity.  

Homeworking: There were both positives and negatives:

Positives included the HEROS system, which is hosted online and was thus largely unaffected, allowing maintenance and updating of HER databases to continue; Audits were a significant focus for HERs in 2020 (work in this area was uninterrupted); Moving to online meetings brought benefits, both environmentally and in terms of time saved.  

 

Negatives experienced were that team dynamics were impaired and informal training and support greatly diminished; Some staff were temporarily furloughed (all of whom have now returned). 

Availability of Resources: 

All digital data attached to the HER was accessible and development management casework continued.

Physical, hard copy sources were, however, inaccessible, in some cases necessitating office visits. (Offices were re-opened to staff but not external visitors). 

Backlogs of updating were created where remote access was not possible. New material is now awaiting accession to the HER and supporting catalogues. 

All of the Welsh Archaeological Trusts reported a lack of engagement with volunteers. It was impossible to admit them into office space and difficulties emerged in assigning remote tasks. In any case a significant proportion of volunteers did so as a social pursuit, making an element face to face contact essential. Contact was kept up, as far as was possible, by phone and e-mail and a variety of new projects (for example the Gwynedd Trust’s Accessioning Arch Camb., which involved accessioning data from Archaeologia Cambrensis online) were devised to keep up contact and momentum.