ARIADNE is an EU-funded project that provides an overview of the data lifecycle from initial project design and data creation through archiving and re-use. The stages include planning methods, recording data during fieldwork or laboratory work, documenting data to support future analysis and reuse, and depositing well-documented data in an archive. Proper documentation and metadata capture at each stage, from project start to archiving, ensures data can be understood, selected for long-term preservation, and discovered for new research uses over time. Reusing existing archived data supports new discoveries and data preservation.

1. ARIADNE is funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme
Lifecycles
Kate Fernie

2. Overview
• Data Lifecycle
• Creation and Capture
• Archiving
• Re-use

3. Data Lifecycle
Provides an overview of the stages
in the curation and preservation of
data from the initial project design.
It can be used to plan activities in
an organisation.
We’re using it here to convey the
idea that there is a cycle in the life
of your data.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/curation-lifecycle-model
Data Curation Centre Lifecycle model

4. In the beginning
• Project begins with the research design
• Planning the methods and techniques
– Field survey, Excavation, Remote sensing, Lab
analyses, Digitisation, etc
• Setting up
– Choosing the tools
– Calibrating instruments
• Recording

5. Creation: Born digital
• Data originating in electronic recording equipment or in
computers, e.g. 3D digitisation
• No analogue equivalent
• A large array of hardware and software may be used in the capture,
processing, analysis and generation of the data
• How easy the data is to use for analysis, post-processing or
visualisation and how meaningful it is in future
• Depends on the metadata captured
• Parameters of the instruments
• Registration, base lines
• Coding
• Etc.
Image © Oxford Archaeology (North)

6. Creation: Digitised
• Data created as a result of converting analogue originals,
e.g. by scanning plans or images
• Again an array of hardware and software may be used
• Choices will be made
• Resolution of images
• Whether to produce vector or raster data
• OCR techniques for conversion of scanned archive documents to
text
• Affects the uses of the data
• e.g. in GIS
• Metadata capture is important
Image © State Library of New South Wales 2015

8. Data lifecycle
1.
Create
• The information you capture from
the start of your project and when
you capture your data matters
• It affects what you can do later
• Especially in long-running projects
which involve many researchers
2. Active
Use

9. Archiving
Remember the case studies
• The archives arrived for
deposit in boxes and hard
drives…
• Important data files with
• Duplicates and redundant
or irrelevant stuff
• and some documentation

10. Archiving
• When data is received a curator will
– Appraise it (work out what the deposit includes)
– Select the data that is useful to keep in the long term
The information that
researchers give describing their
project and documenting their
data is crucial for appraisal.

11. Selection
A
B C
E
D F

12. Archiving
• When data is received a curator will
– Appraise it
– Select the data that is useful to keep in the long term
– Possibly transform the data into new formats
– Add administrative metadata
– Ingest into the repository
– Make it available for re-use

13. Data lifecycle
• The information you capture
from the start of your project
and when you capture your
data matters
• It supports archiving
• The metadata that curators
add when they ingest your data
into the repository is important
for its management and
enables re-use

14. Will you re-use existing datasets in your
research project?
• Majority of data is recorded in grey
literature
• Published reports often include only a
subset of the data
• Data deposited in an archive supports
preservation and enables access for
re-use
• Discovery metadata is important
© Buch Edition
Re-use

15. Case study: Bosworth archive

16. Case study: Bosworth archive
Downloadable data
archive

17. ADS digital data re-use awards!
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/blog/2015/10/we-have-a-winner-
digital-data-reuse-award-2015/

18. • The information you capture from the start of
your project and
• the metadata provided with your data archive
matters
• It enables discovery and
new research uses
• And long term preservation
Data lifecycle
1.
Create
2. Active
Use

19. This is not a tyranny
• We don’t mean to over-state the
case
• Or to scare off well-meaning people
with a high-tech approach
• There can be a scaled approach
• Good practices go a long way in
helping to secure your data

20. Document it
Capture metadata
Make a back up
Deposit in an archive
Make it available for re-use
How will you look after your data?

21. Acknowledgements
ARIADNE is a project funded by the European Commission under the Community’s Seventh
Framework Programme, contract no. FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1-313193.
Dr Katie Green, Archaeology Data Service
Dr. Jeremy Huggett, University of Glasgow
DataTrain Project, Cambridge University Library
Image credits:
DCC Data Lifecycle and image of Checklist for a Data Management Plan courtesy of the Digital
Curation Centre
ACE 'Working in Archaeology' Photographic Exhibition 2011-12