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Integrated Archaeological Database The Integrated Archaeological Database system, or IADB for short, is designed to address the data management requirements throughout the lifespan of archaeological excavation projects, from initial excavation recording, through post-excavation analysis and research to eventual dissemination and archiving.What the IADB Contains Put simply, an IADB project database consists of data resources and the links, or connections between them. There are a number of different types of resources as shown below (click on a resource name to see an example):
The Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB) has developed over many years. In the late eighties, Steve Stead and Pete Clark, then both at the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust (SUAT) in Perth, started developing the concept of a computerised integrated database to record and help with the analysis of several large excavation projects on which SUAT was working at the time. When Mike Rains took over from Steve Stead at SUAT in 1989, he realised that some of the software development projects on which he had been working, initially at Durham University and then at the Scottish Development Department (later to become Historic Scotland), could together form the basis for starting to implement the IADB concept. These included a simple stratigraphic analysis program, a basic Context and Find cataloging application and an early attempt at a single context plan digitising solution. Early versions of the IADB ran under MS-DOS and were written in Clipper and C using the dBase database format. Vector graphics used the GEM graphics library, a precursor to Windows. With the launch of Visual Basic, the IADB was moved to Windows using an MS Access database. In 1997, Mike Rains moved from SUAT to York Archaeological Trust and shortly afterwards the IADB programs were migrated to Delphi, still using an Access database. In 1999 work was begun on converting the IADB to a web application using MySQL and PHP. In recent years, development has continued in collaboration with Amanda Clarke and Mike Fulford of the Silchester Town Life Project at Reading University. Grants from the AHRC have funded the development of the IADB as a web publication tool, and a grant from the JISC is currently funding the VERA project for the development of the IADB as a Virtual Research Environment for archaeology using the Silchester project as a test-bed. Who is Using the IADB Current users of the IADB include:
IADB Demonstration This server contains a demonstration version of the IADB which you can access using the links below. You are advised to read the introductory notes first. The IADB is designed to be used with the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Most parts will also work in Internet Explorer and Opera, but you may experience some problems using these browsers. Firefox is available free of charge for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from http://www.getfirefox.com. By clicking on the IADB Demo link below, you can log into the IADB using the username GUEST and keyword GUEST. This will give you read-only access to a small example project database, however, as the IADB is designed very much as an active working environment rather than as a passive resource, read-only access does not really allow you to explore the full potential of the IADB. If you would like to try out a fully working version of the demo in which you can create and edit IADB records, please contact Mike Rains for a user name and password and then click on the IADB Trial link below (GUEST does not work if you follow this link).
If after looking at the demo you would like any further information about the IADB or would like to arrange a 'test run' for your organisation, please contact Mike Rains. System Requirements If you are interested in using the IADB, then there are two routes open to you:
Costs The IADB is to be released as open source software which means, amongst other things, that there is no charge for the actual software, whether to install on your own server or used centrally via the hosting option. YAT will make a daily (or pro-rata) charge plus expenses for all work undertaken to help you set up or maintain your own IADB server, any customisation of the program, and user training, at least a couple of days of which would normally be required under either the own server or hosted option. YAT's current daily charge (December 2007) is GBP 275 plus VAT per day, plus expenses. Under the hosting option, YAT will make an additional charge for data storage. This will normally be GBP 50 plus VAT per calendar month, payable quarterly in advance. This charge remains the same regardless of how many Users or Projects you create within your database, but a higher charge may need to be negotiated if your database grows very large! These charges will be reviewed in April each year and YAT reserves the right to increase them in line with inflation. YAT currently makes no charge for basic telephone and email support for the IADB provided that all support requests are channelled through a single contact individual within each organisation using the IADB and, in the case of independent IADB servers, YAT has remote access to the server via HTTP and FTP. As the number of IADB users increases, YAT may need to reconsider this policy, in which case all users will be consulted. |