Archaeology data and non-archaeological professionals: Why do people need archaeology?

This presentation was given by Rimvydas Lauzikas (Vilnius University Faculty of Communication) at EAA2024 as part of CARARE's session "Making Connections: Towards archaeological narratives in contemporary society". Co-presenters: Indrė Jovaišaitė-Blaževičienė, Ingrida Kelpšienė and Andrius Šuminas,
(Vilnius University Faculty of Communication).

This paper focuses on the intersection of archaeology and non-archaeological audiences, delving into why and how individuals outside the realm of professional archaeology seek access to archaeology data, heritage objects, and associated
knowledge and materials. The research group members decided to adopt the quality-in-use conceptual approach for this study. Quality in use is described as “the degree to which a product or system can be used by specific users to meet their needs to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and freedom from risk in specific contexts of use”. The research methodology is based on the SQuaRE model, represented in the ISO/IEC 25000 standards series. The methodological model created consisted of (i) interviews with non-archaeological professionals; (ii) definition of three use cases (use of archaeology data for inspiration, for improvisation, and precise reconstruction of the past reality); (iii) eye tracking experiments; and (iv) after the experiment questionnaire. The research focuses on reusing data from the three types of digital archaeological archives: (i) ADS, as a traditional, CoreTrustSeal accredited archive that holds actual data in the long term; (ii) ARIADNE, as an aggregation portal that holds no data, only metadata, but facilitates resource discovery and points users to data held in repositories and archives; and (iii) AIR as an interactive virtual research environment and reporting platform for organising newly captured archaeological field data and organising it in ways that allow it to be used for collaborative analysis.

The paper presents the results of the research, including the differences (i) in the need for highly precise archaeological data for the different groups of users (ii) in the ways how they access the archaeology data in the different types of digital archaeological archives; and (iii) in the information behaviour of different users.

1. ARCHAEOLOGY DATA AND NON-
ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROFESSIONALS: WHY
DO PEOPLE NEED
ARCHAEOLOGY?
Rimvydas Laužikas, Indrė Jovaišaitė-
Blaževičienė, Ingrida Kelpšienė,
Andrius Šuminas

2. WP7: Quality in Use Analysis for
Archaeologists
The creation and implementation
of a methodology to evaluate the
re-usability of(i) archaeological
data, and(ii) archaeologyarchives
by professional and non-
professional archaeologists
https://www.tetrarchs.org/

3. Theoreticalconsiderations
•Non-archaeologicalprofessionals: people who regularly or occasionally organise
or engage in an archaeology-relatedactivity without having acquired an academic
education, training or formal certification in archaeology, and whose day job is
not in professional archaeology(Laužikas et al., 2018).
•[theyare themembersof] Archeology-relatedcommunities. Semiotic
interpretation ofthe community, communty‘sknowledge and knowledge coding
(Lotman, 2001).
•[theyare differentbythe] Information behaviouras the "totality of human
behaviourin relation to sources and channels of information, including both
active and passive information seeking, and information use" (Wilson, 2000).

4. Researchdesign
•Notevaluationofthearchive, butevaluationofuserexperience(goodorbadexperience
doesn‘tmeanthearchiveisgoodorbad).
•This researchuses the “Quality in Use” conceptual approachandthe SQuaREmodel,
represented in the ISO/IEC 25000 standards series(Seatonet al., 2023).
Assessmentof the degree to which theaudiencecanusea digitalresourceto achieve
specific goals[specificusecase]with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction.
[1] interviews (whatprofessional, whatkindofdata, forwhat, howandwithwhatresult
use)
[2] eye-tracking experiment(non-archaeologicalprofessionals+ [controlcase] professional
archaeologists)
[3] post-eye-tracking questionnaire

5. Hypothesis
1. Membersofdifferentarchaeology-relatedcommunities
havedifferentinformationbehaviours.
2. Archaeologydata archives, createdbyprofessional
archaeologists, are basedonspecificinformationbehaviour
that is difficult for non-archaeological professionals to
understand.
3. Differences in information behaviourare the main barrier
for non-archaeology professionals to useandre-usethe
archaeologydata.

6. Analysedarchaeologydata archives
1.Ariadne:https://portal.ariadne-infrastructure.eu/
2.ADS:https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/search-data/
3.AIR:https://omeka.ht.lu.se/s/reports/page/home
+ 4. [controlcase] Google search.

7. Results

8. The scope ofinterest
(non-archaeologists)
•Inspiration
Low interest
to highly precise
archaeological data.
•Reconstruction of
the past reality
High interest
to highly precise archaeological data
Improvisation
Moderateinterest
to highly precise
archaeological data

9. Eye-trackingexample1
Whatisthe
differencebetween
ArchSearch,
ArchivesandLibrary
(inarchaeology)?
[terminologybarrier]

10. Eye-trackingexample2
Focusonone„search
field“ andtotal
ignoranceofpossible
filteringcriteria.
[information
management
barrier]

11. Eye-trackingexample3
Whatisthere?
Whereisthe
„searchfield“?
[information
seekingbarrier]

12. Eye-trackingexample4
Artefacts, metadata,
context, story...
Google‘sinformation
managementtools
are ina blackbox...
Therole of
TETRARCHs...

13. Hypothesesare approved...
https://stoneaxes.org.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN-34JfUrHY
https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/neolithic-revolution
https://www.kget.com/community/ricks-reviews/the-flintstones-looking-to-rock-dvd-blu-ray-worlds/

14. Fullmaterial+ results+ recommendationsis/ will
be publishedasTETRARCH‘sreportsandopen
accessscholarlyarticle.

15. Thankyou
[email protected]