Evaluating a Cooperative Approach to the Management of Digital Archaeological Records (ECAMDAR): A Defense Legacy Project Assessing tDAR for the Department of Defense

The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory (MAC Lab) and the Regional Archaeological Curation Laboratory (RACF) in Ft. Lee, Virginia are archaeological repositories that meet high professional standards for the care of artifacts and paper records. Unfortunately, neither facility has the expert technical staff and specialized infrastructure necessary to qualify as permanent repositories for digital records, despite the exponential rise in site documentation that exists in digital form only. This project is designed to test tDAR as an alternate repository for digital records held by the MAC Lab and RACF on behalf of 25 different military installations in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia. Of paramount importance is determining whether tDAR can strike a balance between accessibility and the stringent security that many DoD installations require in a way that is cost-effective and applicable to many different kinds of installations. The project results are positive, and the procedures developed to address the 25 installations included in this project have therefore been converted into standards and recommendations for the DoD as a whole. Ultimately, the project participants hope to impact DoD policy so that their irreplaceable archaeological data will be protected regardless of its form.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.