OASIS Workshop at the RCAHMS

As part of our ongoing staff and company training programme and to keep abreast of best practice in the industry, one of Rubicon’s Scottish staff attended an OASIS (Online AccesS to the Index of archaeological investigationS) redevelopment workshop held at RCAHMS (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland) recently.

OASIS was first launched in its current form in 2004 and in 2014 the HERALD project was initiated to look at redevelopment of the service. The workshop at RCAHMS focused on the function of OASIS and how it is used by the archaeological community and can be enhanced in the future.
OASIS provides a service through which information about archaeological projects is collected via the internet and can then be accessed by professional archaeologists and the wider public. The information is also accessed by Historic Environment Officers for feeding into HERs. In Scotland the information entered can also be imported to create the Discovery and Excavation in Scotland entry and is accessed by RCAHMS for the NMRS. While most projects in the development process have a requirement for OASIS reporting it is best practice for all archaeological work to be reported using this service.
Projects entered into OASIS can also submit reports in the ‘grey literature’ section which become part of the library held by ADS (Archaeological Data Service). This library provides an invaluable resource for information about archaeological work throughout the UK. The feedback from the workshop is part of a consultation process prior to re-development which will see the OASIS system having increased functionality and become even more user friendly. Rubicon wishes good luck to the OASIS team for this project!
More information about OASIS can be found at their website here and on ADS at their website here.