Alex Adamson of Historic Environment Scotland explains plans to link the many datasets held within HES

1. Heritage Hub
Linking Historic Environment Scotland’s Data
Alex Adamson
Deputy Head of Survey and Recording

2. HES VISION AND PRIORITIES
OUR VISION
Scotland’s historic
environment is cherished,
understood, shared and
enjoyed with pride, by
everyone.

3. OUR PRIORITIES
1. The historic environment makes a real difference to people’s lives
2. The historic environment is looked after, protected and managed
for the generations to come
3. The historic environment makes a broader contribution to the
economy of Scotland and its people
4. The historic environment inspires a creative and vibrant Scotland
5. The historic environment is cared for and championed by a high-
performing organisation

4. THAT MEANS…
We need to be able to tell people what we know about Scotland’s
historic places.
• What is it?
• Where is it?
• How old is it?
• What does it look like?
• What happened there?
• Who is associated with it?
• How has it changed through time?
Without that, how can people understand a site?
How can they make the best decisions about it?

5. THE GOOD NEWS
HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SCOTLAND HAS LOTS OF DATA:
Canmore
Archaeology Database Application (ADA)
Portal
Grant Aided Properties
Castle Conservation Register
Scranalogue
Dictionary of Scottish Architects
Buildings At Risk Regisiter (BARR)
Scotland’s Places
Books for All Scotland
National Museums of Scotland
Books for All CRM

6. LOTS AND LOTS
Scottish Ironworks Foundation
Scottish Stained Glass Trust
Stirling Castle Palace
Union of the Crowns
Wallace Man and Myth
Archaeology Strategy
Britain From Above
Scotland’s Places
Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF)
Scotland’s Urban Past
Pastmap
Britain From Above
HLAMap
NCAP

7. SERIOUSLY, MORE THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE
Scotland’s Urban Past
Scotland’s Rock Art Project (ScRAP)
Papar Project
Virtual Hamilton Palace
A Virtual Field Trip in Roman Scotland
Airthrie Castle
Ancient Stones of Scotland
Archaeological Illustration: An introduction to techniques
using images from the SCRAN database
Aspects of Daily Life in Scandinavian Scotland
Better Photography: The Right Way to Compose Pictures
Breaking of the Mould: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century
Scottish Gaelic Poetry
Chasing the Deer

8. ARE YOU STARTING TO SEE WHAT I MEAN?
Collieston's Century
Colourist's Guide to Design
Commonwealth Online
Dalquharran Castle
Developing and Managing Visitor Attractions; Sustainable
Development in Tourism
Dualchas na Gàidhealtachd / Traditional Culture of the
Scottish Highlands and Islands
Empire Exhibition of 1938
Films of Scotland
Friezes
History of Children’s Nursing – The Picture Tells the Story

9. SURELY WE MUST BE NEARLY FINISHED
Images of Scotland: An Introduction to Visual Sociology
International Exhibitions 1851 – 1938: A Visual Library
Introduction to Social Documentary
Introduction to the Work of the Scottish Photographers,
David Hill and Robert Adamson
Litreachas na Gàidhlig anns an fhicheadamh linn / Twentieth
century Gaelic literature
Mary Queen of Scots
Medieval Literatures of the Highlands and Islands; An
Introduction to Old Norse Studies
National Burns Collection
Patients and Practitioners: The nurse's role

10. THIS IS STATING TO GET SILLY
Playbills
Queens Park Church
Scotland's Bard
Scotland's Game
Scotland's Hero - William Wallace
Scotland's Lost Buildings
Scott Monument
Scottish East Coast Fisheries
Scottish People
Scottish Poetry Library
Scottish Weaponry
Scran/ICL 2001 Photo Competition
SHELF Project

11. AH, COME ON NOW
Slaughter of the Whales: A History of the Greenland Whale
Fishery
Spanish paintings in Scottish museums; International
Brigades: The Life and Adventures of Three Scottish
Volunteers fighting in the Spanish Civil War
St Magnus Cathedral
The Cairngorm Question
The Eighteenth Century Scottish Town: A Virtual Field Trip
The John Murdoch Henderson Music Collection
The Lamb Collection
The Land We Made
The Roy Map
The Tiger and the Thistle

12. MY EYES ARE STARTING TO GLAZE OVER
Three Experiences of War
Town Plans
Trusted Digital Repository
Underwater Archaeology
Unlock the Boxes
Using images in language learning
Virtual Architecture: Robert Adam and Greek Thompson
Reconstructed
Virtual Geological Fieldtrip to the Isle of Arran
Voyage of the Scotia
War Poets
Web-based resources to support undergraduate classroom
teaching: A resource pack

13. FINISHED – AT LAST
HES Images
Radiocarbon Data
Canmore Thesaurus
That’s only the public websites.
We have:
• Internal websites and systems
• Unpublished electronic data
• Unpublished paper records

14. THE CHALLENGES
In order to start a project we need to be clear about:
• What data is in scope?
• Harmonisation of terms and conditions
• Some websites are subscription
• What about partnership sites – contracts and legal
agreements?
• Differing business models
• What do our customers value in our current systems?
• What would they like to see in the future?
• Are there audiences that we are failing?
• What are similar organisations doing better than we are?
• What should our IT infrastructure need to be?

15. Statistics
12weeks
45tbsdata
+3m online
visitors per year
23 external
websites
analysed
69internal
papers and
reports
40
individuals
interviewed
185external
users surveyed
from 3
continents
135
user needs
641
webpages
reviewed
6 core user
journeys

16. The value of HES resources
A great deal of value is attached
to the resources
However this was tempered by
the fact that it was felt to be
less accessible that it should be

17. Visibility & Awareness
Certain resources are well liked
but less well known than they
could be

18. Interrogating data
Issues with searching were
almost universally reported

19. Data Type Support
The current solution doesn’t
handle more modern data types
and requirements very well

20. Interconnectivity
There is a lack of navigation
between the websites

21. Presentation of data
Information is not presented in
a manner that is appealing to
the public

22. Data Concordance
Differing origins of data,
changing understanding of sites
and lack of consistency in
terminology makes it hard to
make sense of our records

23. People want to engage and
contribute but not always in the
way you expect
Community Engagement

24. WHAT NEXT?
GETTING HERITAGE HUB ON THE ROAD
• We have the evidence we need
to scope the project
• We have an idea how long it will
take and the resources we will
need
• Create a business case to
convince our board
• Start building
• Keep talking to our customers
• Come up with a better name