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An Evaluation of Digital Data from Virginia Archaeological Websites

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An Evaluation of Digital Data from Virginia Archaeological Websites University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2015 “Not for Casual Readers:” An Evaluation of Digital Data from Virginia Archaeological Websites Mark Antony Freeman University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Freeman, Mark Antony, "“Not for Casual Readers:” An Evaluation of Digital Data from Virginia Archaeological Websites. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2015. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/3476 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Mark Antony Freeman entitled "“Not for Casual Readers:” An Evaluation of Digital Data from Virginia Archaeological Websites." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Information Sciences. Xiaohua Zhu, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Carolyn Hank, Suzie Allard Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) “Not for Casual Readers:” An Evaluation of Digital Data from Virginia Archaeological Websites A Thesis Presented for the Master of Science Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Mark Antony Freeman August 2015 ii Licensed as CC BY-NC-ND Creative Commons: Attribution, Non- Commercial, No Derivatives http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/3.0/us/ 2015 by Mark Antony Freeman iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my wife, Barbara Heath, for her encouragement, support and insight. I’d also like to thank my committee for their expertise and considerable help. Chair: Dr. Xiaohua Zhu Dr. Suzie Allard Dr. Carolyn Hank Finally I’d like to thank the following people who assisted with the research: David Anderson, Gillian Galle, Fraser Neiman, Jolene Smith; and Eleanor Breen and Esther White whose initial study was part of the basis for this research. iv Abstract Archaeological data dissemination is complicated by the need to serve disparate audiences, each of which has different data needs. This study examined the websites of 148 Virginia institutions identified as having archaeological collections or data, and used content analysis to see how they supported characteristics of scholarly publishing, open data and public outreach. Archaeologists are increasingly looking for comparative data sets for research needs, with professional ethics and a desire for public engagement encouraging data sharing. However this analysis suggests that, while there are some exemplary websites, much of the archaeological record remains publicly inaccessible. The majority of websites examined provided no reference to archaeology and, of the remainder, a third did not provide archaeological data. These websites did provide many supporting characteristics for public outreach, but concerns about preservation, data “openness,” and limited datasets remain. v Table of Contents Chapter 1 - Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Definitions used in study .............................................................................................................. 3 Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................................ 4 Significance .................................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2 – Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 12 Archaeological publishing and the curation crisis ..................................................................... 12 Archaeological Data ................................................................................................................... 18 Archaeological repositories and data publishing options .......................................................... 20 Scholarly publishing ................................................................................................................... 27 Open data................................................................................................................................... 30 Public outreach and audience .................................................................................................... 32 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 3 - Methods ...................................................................................................................... 41 Content analysis ......................................................................................................................... 41 Population .................................................................................................................................. 42 Data Collection ........................................................................................................................... 43 Data Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 47 Chapter 4 – Results ........................................................................................................................ 49 “No Archaeology” web pages .................................................................................................... 49 Archaeology content, but not data ............................................................................................ 51 Public Outreach ...................................................................................................................... 51 Archaeological Data ................................................................................................................... 54 Open Data .............................................................................................................................. 55 Scholarly publishing ............................................................................................................... 56 Archaeological data sub-clusters ........................................................................................... 57 Chapter 5 – Discussions ................................................................................................................. 58 Overview .................................................................................................................................... 58 Limitations.................................................................................................................................. 59 Scholarly Publishing ................................................................................................................... 61 Open Data .................................................................................................................................. 65 Public Outreach .......................................................................................................................... 66 Findings by institutional type ..................................................................................................... 68 Aggregated websites .................................................................................................................. 69 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 71 vi References ..................................................................................................................................... 75 Appendices ..................................................................................................................................... 85 Appendix A – institutional websites holding archaeology collections ....................................... 86 Appendix B – Website Coding System ....................................................................................... 91 Data Management ................................................................................................................. 91 Institutional Information ....................................................................................................... 91 Data Content .......................................................................................................................... 91 Scholarly Publishing ............................................................................................................... 92 Open Data .............................................................................................................................
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