Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Fifty Years Behind the Scenes: digitizing the archives of York Archaeology

Ellie Drew, Collections and Archives Officer, York Archaeology

York Archaeology (formerly York Archaeological Trust) holds a collection of objects and related archive material from over fifty years of excavations in York, and further afield. The Collections and Archives Department is currently undertaking an ambitious project to make much of this material available online via the open-source platform Omeka S. This talk will cover our approach to the project, some of the technical challenges faced along the way, and how these resources can expand and enhance use of the collection both within the heritage sector, and more generally by researchers, schools, and the general public.

Ellie Drew is Collections and Archives Officer for York Archaeology. She has an MSc in Digital Heritage from the University of York, and is especially interested in improving access to collections through both digital and analogue methods.

Doors open 7pm for a 7.30pm event start:

We are holding this free Cafe Scientifique session on Wednesday 19 March 2025 from 7pm, talk starting at 7.30pm, in the “Den”, Mickelgate Social, 148-150 Mickelgate on the corner of Bar Lane, York. 

Member’s report

York Archaeology, formerly the York Archaeological Trust, was established in 1972 and has conducted excavations all over York and beyond (Glasgow, Sheffield and Nottingham, for instance) ever since. Its collections contain excavation reports, the names of archaeologists, photographs and slides, publications, archives, and some 200,000 finds. The collection has long been catalogued and indexed to describe individual and types of finds, excavation locations, and photographs and slides – each with its own unique ID. They have mapped the changing streetscape of York since Roman times and this remarkable resource has now been made accessible in digital form for online searching using Omeka S.

Omeka S was originally developed at The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, Virginia, as a free, open-source web-publishing platform for the display of cultural collections including the creation of online exhibitions. It can draw on a pool of resources and host multiple sites.

Digitisation of York Archaeology’s catalogues, along with all 70 published fascicules as well as Interim (short excavation reports from 1973-2001), brings all components together to create a very full meta database (data about data). It will support short searches as well as in-depth research using “findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable rich metadata”. The online exhibition of Barley Hall is one demonstration of the wealth of information made available.

Carole Smith