MSc in Archaeological Information Systems

Course Placements

Students are expected to spend one day per week in the Autumn and Spring terms on a placement within an appropriate archaeological computing environment.

Aims:

To provide experience of computer applications within a working environment in the historic environment sector.
To consolidate knowledge and understanding of computer applications in one or more of the taught modules.

Learning outcomes:

Upon completion of this module student should:

Have an appreciation of how information technology is used in the workplace in the historic environment sector
Have an understanding of the contexts in which IT is applied, and of real world limitations
Have developed their IT skills in one or more of the core areas covered by the taught programme i.e. database design, web technologies, digital archiving, electronic publication, CAD, GIS, and virtual reality modelling

It is the responsibility of students to:

take due regard of the needs of the placement provider and its customers, clients and employees
record their activities so that they can provide a verbal report on their placement (see below)
alert the placement provider and the Director of Studies to problems that might prevent the satisfactory completion of the placement.

Placement opportunities

Students will discuss placements with the Director of Studies at the beginning of the Autumn and Spring terms. Particular placements cannot be guaranteed but we will try to satisfy needs as far as possible. The recommended placements available during 2009-10 are:

Archaeology Data Service Curatorial Assistant: HTML experience in professional digital archiving environment to OAIS standards - intranet work and some archive preparation through to dissemination (Jen Mitcham/ Michael Charno) - 1 student x Autumn and Spring terms
Internet ArchaeologyEditorial assistant: HTML and e-publishing experience (Zoe Devlin) - 1 student x Spring term
AntiquityWeb assistant to help Pat Gibbs, the Antiquity web officer: HTML, ASP & a little bit of PHP; "would suit a web novice" - 1 student x Spring or Autumn terms
The Council for British Archaeology, Bootham: Information Assistant - various projects, mainly web-based; (Dan Hull) - 1 student x Autumn & Spring terms
North Yorkshire County Council Archaeology Section: HER work experience (Nick Boldrini) - 1 student x Autumn & Spring terms. Based in Northallerton, but travel expenses are normally available

Departmental research projects:

To redesign the project web site for the Southern French Alps Project and incorporate pdf versions of the excavation reports within this site. The current web site can be found via the following http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/med/html/web/ More specifically, this placement would comprise the creation of a new front page and links to the various existing sources of information. Plus, new text and images from recent fieldwork would be added to the web site. (Kevin Walsh - either term)
Scoping potential of 10kmsq of lidar data from Heslington East (based in English Heritage). (Cath Neal - either term) Applicants must have AP experience.
Digitising Heslington East excavation drawings - good for those wanting to improve CAD skills (Cath Neal - either term)
To create a web database of an environmental archaeology bibliographic database, possibly with update tools. (Allan Hall - either term)
Database of cross slabs in northern England. To create an Access database (one exists already in basic format as a guide, but it needs major revisions and professionalizing) for medieval cross slab grave monuments, and then carry out data entry from published cross slab catalogues. You will benefit by getting to practice database creation skills, as well as receiving training in the dating and stylistic classification of the most common form of medieval commemorative monument. (Aleks McClain - eithe term

HEEAL project. Paul Lane (pjl503@york.ac.uk - office G/15, tel. extension 3966) requires assistance with the following projects, either term:

Digital archiving of excavation & survey records relating to a 19th century settlement in northern Tanzania associated with the caravan trade. This work will also involve digitisation of excavation drawings and compilation of documentary sources relating to the site (hard copies of which are available with the archaeological records).
Digital archiving & digitisation of drawings of 20th century Zigua and Bondei (Nth Tanzania) house plans and compilation of a database on associated household inventories. A large slide and balcka nd white photographic archive is also available.
Compilation of a sites and monuments database on 16th-19th century Luo settlements (western Kenya), from paper records and GPS Geoexplorer digital files, and generation of GIS layer or layers from same. Archive includes slide and digital photos, paper records, and high resolution hand-held GPS site plans.
Digital archiving and digitisation of excavation records relating to mapping and excavation of a multi-period stone cairn complex (40 plus cairns of different type, 18 plus human burials), dating to c. 2400-400 bp) in samburu District, northern Kenya. Archive includes digital photographs and colour slides, EDM survey data, scale drawings & other paper records.

BioArCh. David Harker is looking for assistance with the following (NB programming skills required for some tasks):

PrediCtoR. Front end: User interface design or implementation; User needs survey/workflow design. Back end: Updating the PrediCtoR maths library to a beta level of completion, design and implementation of appropriate testing methodologies for the completed library; Design (implementation if time) of some sort of XML based lab data interchange format and protocol letting various lab databases/software apps talk to each other
SHAARK
- Massive amounts of database work, data processing, sanity checking, reformatting etc. in PHP.
- User interface design, mockups and possibly some implementation; understanding usability requirements for the system and finding ways to meet them. Designing software that is easy to use/interact with, which users will enjoy using and have difficulty breaking by accident.
- Some theoretical stuff on data formats for storing, communicating, displaying and using AAR geolocal calibration curves (this could be a really interesting one for any sciency-mathsy people who wouldn't necessarily need computer programming skills as long as they're happy with the theory).
- Post-processing workflow design (which would need some collaboration with MC), storyboarding/flowcharts/mockups, user needs evaluation etc. (this is likely to be pretty heavy on the level of understanding needed to complete the work, but require common sense and logic on top of that rather than any specialisation in maths/biochem/software development to complete well)

The following options are also potentially available according to interest and skills

York City Council Archaeology section, St Leonard's Place: HER migration and updating (John Oxley) - 1 student x Autumn and Sprig terms
English Heritage Aerial photo unit, Tanner Row: Air photo rectification (Dave Macleod) - 1 student x Autumn and Spring terms
English Heritage Archaeological Survey & Investigation Team, Tanner Row: ACAD site plans, amalgamating GPS, EDM and pre-electronic survey data to produce a final drawing suitable for publication or incorporation into a GIS (Al Oswald) - 1 student x Autumn and Spring terms

For further information, consult Departmental Code of Practice for Placement Learning.

Information supplied by JDR; last updated Oct 2009