27th April 2012, 06:19 PM
BAJR Wrote:I am remaining neutral on this - so don't want a grumphl response... I can see how it can do things that would not be possible otherwise.
I actually think that this is not a bad idea - sure, in an ideal world, the HER would be properly-resourced, and would have enough staff to fully enter everything in the grey literature reports into the database (I know that in Unit's ideal world, there'd be no HERs, but I don't want to revisit that whole argument yet again). However, given that this is unlikely to happen any time soon, I don't really have a problem with them using volunteers to do something that wouldn't otherwise be done - after all, it's not taking a job away from an archaeologist, as they don't have the money to employ someone to do this work (and again, I know that Unit doesn't consider Council archaeologists to be archaeologists, so I don't want to revisit that whole tedious rant either). Surely it's better that the information in the grey literature report is as widely and easily available as possible, rather than being locked up in a paper copy of a report in a filing cabinet in a Council office? I'm sure most people have experienced the frustration of looking at the online HER and seeing that a survey has taken place, but that there's no detail of the results because it's never been fully entered into the record, meaning you have to ask the staff for a scan or photocopy, which in turn usually results in a charge. Similarly, if I've done a survey that's identified 50 new sites, I'd prefer that information on these is available online for any future researcher or member of the public to use.
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum