The RCAHMS and RCAHMW SWISH Partnership

Rebecca Jones

Rebecca Jones
RCAHMS

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland first launched its on-line database, Canmore, in 1998. The availability of the national database for Scotland with its associated Collections on the Internet has opened up a wealth of information about the built environment to users across Scotland and wider afield that was previously only available to visitors to RCAHMS' offices in Edinburgh. In 2001, RCAHMS' sister body in Wales, the RCAHMW, undertook a major strategic review, which proposed that the organisation replace and upgrade its ICT platform. Following a study of the options available, the business case proposed that RCAHMW explore the development of a partnership with a similar organisation. This led to a feasibility analysis undertaken in early 2002 to assess whether an appropriate partnership could be implemented between RCAHMW and RCAHMS.

This study led to the development of the Shared Web Information Systems for Heritage (SWISH) partnership between the two organisations, formally agreed in 2003. The partnership means that RCAHMS use web technology to host the database for RCAHMW, which is managed and updated by staff in the RCAHMW offices in Aberystwyth. It also led to the development of the on-line database for Wales, Coflein, launched in 2004. Since its inception, the partnership has focused on shared maintenance and development costs between the two organisations, and a shared vision for the future enhancements of the two national databases. Thus far, this has enabled a refresh of the technological infrastructure and delivered several new modules to the database, including a digital asset management system and images on-line through Canmore and Coflein. Working in partnership enables the two organisations to share ideas and to bring together differing experiences to progress a joint strategy on access to information and potentially deliver that information to different audiences using available technologies.

Such joint practices also attract other partnerships: building on the web-mapping application, PASTMAP- http://www.Pastmap.org.uk, developed by RCAHMS in partnership with Historic Scotland, RCAHMW have led the development of the Historic Wales (http://www.historicwales.org.uk) portal, launched in November 2006. Historic Wales is a web-map, enabling the user to view information from Coflein alongside the Archaeology Collection of the National Museum of Wales and the Scheduled Ancient Monument and Listed Building data from Cadw. The PASTMAP application for Scotland includes Canmore and Historic Scotland's Scheduled Ancient Monument and Listed Building data, alongside information on Scotland's Gardens and Designed Landscapes, as well as data from several local authority Sites and Monuments Records (SMRs).

SWISH technology has been further used to develop an application to house information from the Scottish Borders SMR - the database is housed and developed in Edinburgh but the data is managed and maintained by the local authority archaeologist in Newtown St Boswells.

RCAHMS and RCAHMW were founded in 1908 to survey and record the built environment of their respective countries. Both therefore celebrate their centenaries in 2008. SWISH projects in the current year include the implementation of thesauri and modules to house information on 'events' and people in the databases alongside more sophisticated cataloguing enhancements. These projects will bring the databases more into line with national and international standards for the management of heritage data, such as the Monument Inventory Data Standard (MIDAS), the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model and the General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD). But the most exciting aspect of the partnership for our joint centenary celebrations will be the re-launch of Canmore and Coflein towards the end of 2008. The underlying databases will be re-written in a web-services environment to enable a more flexible way of delivering data not only to the RCAHMS and RCAHMW on-line databases but also in the future to other search facilities, such as the Archaeology Data Service's ArchSearch. We are also looking forward and exploring ways in which heritage data can be delivered to mobile devices; one phase of which has been RCAHMW's development of innovative 'e-trails' using a mix of devices including GPS-enabled PDAs and MP3 players.

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