Hi Emma, I think I can answer your non-techy questions. Arches is designed to be able to record all the types of information about a monument, building or site. It's based on the Core Data Standard for Archaeological and Architectural Sites (originally developed by CIDOC and published by the Council of Europe).
Within the Arches graphs the place where you would record the Condition is in the Condition Type (data field). This is where you store the value which is taken from the relevant authority document (in this case CONDITION TYPE AUTHORITY DOCUMENT. An authority document is simply a controlled vocabulary which is being used to enforce data entry. This can be a nationally recognized thesaurus, such as the English Heritage Thesaurus of Monument Types or the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus, or it could simply be a wordlist defined by the user. So in this case you may want to define your own so that you had a simple list of 'Good', 'Fair', 'Bad'. Where you might be confused is the use of the implied event. The graphs are based on the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model and this is an event-centric model, ie. nothing can exist without the event that created it. So an implied event is an event where the details are not necessarily recorded but which is need for the semantics within the model to hold true. For example we can say that we have a site which has a condition type of 'Good'. We know it was good on certain date (01-Jan-2014) and the implied event is the condition assessment which actually took place on the 1st Jan 2014. Here though we're not recording any other information about the actual event (eg. who did the assessment, whether it was part of a management activity etc) but we could, if we wanted to, create a condition assessment Activity with all the relevant information which we would then link to the site/monument/building. So in essence the implied event node (the CONDITION ASSESSMENT node) is empty but is used to 'semantically glue' the site to the date and type. You can add as many condition assessments as you like to a site. The minimum information for the site is up to you but we would recommend at least a name, geometry and site type/period. I think images are currently being looked into by the development team but I think it should be possible to attach one to a condition. I've been advising the project on the use of the standards and I was responsible for creating the original graphs so feel free to contact me if you want to talk through any of this. Regards Phil Phil Carlisle Data Standards Supervisor Data Standards Unit, Designations Department English Heritage The Engine House Fire Fly Avenue Swindon SN2 2EH Tel: +44 (0)1793 414824 http://thesaurus.english-heritage.org.uk/ http://www.heritagedata.org/blog/ ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Emma Cunliffe Sent: 16 April 2014 12:22 To: [email protected] Subject: [Arches] Condition assessments Hi I'm looking into options for condition assessments for sites rather than inventorying them specifically, and I've heard good things about ARCHES generally. I noticed that the Glossary contains condition fields, but I then got a little unclear about how these relate to each other, and the wider database. For example: what is the difference between a Node, a field and a controlled vocabularly? What is an Implied Event? Are Data Field Conditions or Information Themes Conditions fixed terms with clearly defined meanings, and in which case, where would I find the terms that can be input to see what they cover? Can multiple condition assessments be entered in order to record changes in state? Can pictures be attached to any of these fields? Do they deal with risk? Lastly, how much other data must be entered on the record in order for it to be useable? What is the minimum that can be entered? If this is all listed somewhere, please just point me in the right direction - I got myself a little confused on the website and wasn't sure where I should be looking! Thank you very much for any assistance you are able to provide. Kind regards Dr E Cunliffe -- -- To post, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]. 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Portico: your gateway to information on sites in the National Heritage Collection; have a look and tell us what you think. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/archives-and-collections/portico/ -- -- To post, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]. For more information, visit https://groups.google.com/d/forum/archesproject?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Arches Project" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
