The State of State Archaeological Site Files

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Transformations in Professional Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology (NCOSA) has spent several years digitizing its archive of reports and site records to improve access for cultural resource managers and researchers. As we work towards making those files available for professional archaeologists to search remotely, we have compiled data on how other states make their site files available. There appears to be a spectrum of accessibility, from those that have nothing digitized to states that have all records digitized and available remotely for free to Secretary of the Interior-qualified archaeologists. Most states fall somewhere between those options, with many (like the NCOSA) in the process of moving from one end of the spectrum to the other, depending on available staff and financial resources. This paper will present the data compiled on the state of state archaeological site files, along with illustrating some of the challenges faced by data managers in their efforts to increase the accessibility of archaeological information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Transformations in Professional Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40387.0