Abstract
Abstract. The Royal Commissions on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and Wales were established in 1908 to investigate and record the archaeological and built heritage of their respective countries. The organisations have grown organically over the succeeding century, steadily developing their inventories and collections as card and paper indexes. Computerisation followed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with RCAHMS releasing Canmore, an online searchable database, in 1998. Following a review of service provision in Wales, RCAHMW entered into partnership with RCAHMS in 2003 to deliver a database for their national inventories and collections. The resultant partnership enables both organisations to develop at their own pace whilst delivering efficiencies through a common experience and a shared IT infrastructure. Through innovative solutions the partnership has also delivered benefits to the wider historic environment community, providing online portals to a range of datasets, ultimately raising public awareness and appreciation of the heritage around them. Now celebrating its 10th year, Shared Web Information Systems for Heritage, or more simply SWISH, continues to underpin the work of both organisations in presenting information about the historic environment to the public.
Highlights
Shared Web Information Systems for Heritage (SWISH) is a partnership between the Royal Commissions on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and Wales (RCAHMW)
From the late 1980s both organisations recognised the need to computerise their records, with RCAHMS transferring their card index records into a STAIRS database by 1988 In Wales, a bespoke system was developed in FoxPro in 1992 to support the internal information management needs of the Commission in the pre-internet era
The system was further developed as the basis for information exchange between organisations engaged in managing records of the historic environment in Wales, including the archaeological trusts and Cadw, the Welsh Government’s Historic Environment Service
Summary
Shared Web Information Systems for Heritage (SWISH) is a partnership between the Royal Commissions on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and Wales (RCAHMW) Both organisations were established in 1908 to record and survey the heritage of their respective countries and operate as sponsored bodies supported by their devolved governments. Programme management is undertaken by a shared board that meets every six months and staff involved in individual projects meet at least once a month Both the Scottish and Welsh Commissions have a long and distinguished background in archaeological and architectural field survey and publication through their respective inventory series, it is the former Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division’s card index and recording system that forms the kernel of the computerised databases in use today (Dunbar 1992). In 1998, RCAHMS was amongst the first national agencies to publish their database online, through Canmore (http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk), complemented by the release of a Web-GIS browser in 2003
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