Guides indicating best practice and good standards in digitisation The AHDS publishes a series of Guides providing the arts and humanities research and teaching communities with practical instruction in applying recognised standards and good practice to the creation and use of digital resources. Some of the Guides focus on methods and applications relevant to humanities disciplines, such as history, archaeology, visual arts, performing arts and textual and linguistic studies. Others address those areas which cross disciplinary boundaries. All Guides identify and explore key issues and provide comprehensive pointers for those who need more specific information. As such they are essential reference materials for anyone interested in computer-assisted research and teaching in the arts and humanities. Some of the guides are also available in printed form. All these links open in new windows Archaeology | History | Performing Arts | Literature, Language and Linguistics | Visual Arts Archaeology Each of these Guides includes tips for discovering and re-using extant digital data, information about creating and managing new digital data, and guidance to ensure proper preparation and documentation of this data for long term archiving. Archiving Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing Data: Guide to digital preservation of aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and archaeological interpretations derived from these sources. Geophysical Data in Archaeology: Guide to Good Practice in collecting, documenting, and preserving raw geophysical data and images and interpretations drawn from this data. CAD: A Guide to Good Practice in collecting, documenting, preserving, and using Computer Aided Design datasets and images. Excavation and Fieldwork Archiving: Guide to digital archiving of records produced in the course of assessment, excavation, and post-excavation phases of archaeological projects. GIS: A guide to good practice in documenting and archiving datasets (both spatial and attribute) from Geographic Information Systems. Creating and Using Virtual Reality. This Guide to Good Practice concentrates on accessible desk-top virtual reality which may be distributed and viewed on-line via the World Wide Web. It is concerned with the variety of virtual reality models that may be produced and how to ensure that these can be delivered successfully to users and preserved for future reuse. History Digitising history: a guide to creating electronic resources from historical documents: This guide is intended as a reference work for individuals and organisations involved with, or planning, the computerisation of historical source documents. A Place in History: A Guide to Using GIS in Historical Research. This guide is intended for historians who want to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS). It describes how to create GIS databases and how to use GIS to perform historical research. Performing Arts Creating Digital Performance Resources: This Guide covers various issues in related to digital resources in the performance arts. It examines the construction of web-based databases, digital archives, e-journals and teaching applications, all in the context of performing arts datasets. There is also a section on the use of electronic resources in the actual practice of performing arts. Creating Digitised Audio Materials for use in Research and Teaching: This Guide aims to provide information and more specific technical guidance for those considering small or medium-scale audio digitisation projects. The guide is aimed at a non-technical audience and will be of interest to holders of analogue collections considering digitisation, managers who need enough information to plan resources for a digitisation project and those experimenting with or piloting digitisation on a small scale for research, teaching, promotion or creative projects. Literature, Language and Linguistics Creating and Documenting Electronic Texts: This Guide outlines various approaches to creating electronic texts, their advantages and disadvantages, and includes the recommendations of the AHDS. Particular emphasis is placed upon the importance of documenting the process of text creation in order to provide bibliographic information appropriate to the needs of teachers and researchers. Visual Arts Creating and Using Virtual Reality. This Guide to Good Practice concentrates on accessible desk-top virtual reality which may be distributed and viewed on-line via the World Wide Web. It is concerned with the variety of virtual reality models that may be produced and how to ensure that these can be delivered successfully to users and preserved for future reuse. Creating digital resources for the Visual Arts: standards and good practice: This Guide both highlights examples of current practice in the creation of digital information in the visual arts domain, and makes recommendations for best practice in data creation, collection, description, delivery and preservation. It covers the use of domain specific resource description standards and the issues involved in the creation and use of resource discovery metadata for this domain. It also covers explicitly technical issues such as choice of data format and hardware and software platforms for a given resource. This has been written by the Visual Arts Data Service & Technical Advisory Service for Images Purchasing Printed Copies of the Guides to Good Practice The following titles are also available in printed copies.
At a price of £10 these guides are available from Oxbow Books. To order, you can write to them at Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford, OX1 1HN. Alternatively, visit their website at http://www.oxbowbooks.com/ Call for Proposals The AHDS is producing several of the Guides, while others are being commissioned. All Guides and proposals for Guides are subject to peer-review to ensure quality and consistency across the series. This ongoing call invites your input into the development of the series. We welcome suggestions for additional topics to be covered by the series. For further information please contact the AHDS Executive. Archaeology | History | Performing Arts | Literature, Language and Linguistics | Visual Arts |
![Link to Creating. Image of banana-ripening hut, Mpaija, Hoima [AHDS History study number: 4169]](hut.jpg)