OASIS: Online Access to the Index of Archaeological Investigations
The OASIS Project brings together a number of strategic partners: the Archaeology Data Service, the Archaeological Investigations Project (AIP) of Bournemouth University, the Archaeology Commissions Section of English Heritage, and the National Monuments Record of English Heritage, under the umbrella of the University of York.
The overall aim of the OASIS Project is to provide an online index to the mass of archaeological grey literature that has been produced as a result of the advent of large-scale developer funded fieldwork. As part of this overall vision, the OASIS data capture form has been designed to help in the flow of information from data producers, such as contracting units, through to local and national data managers, such as SMRs and NMRs. The resulting information will be validated by the relevant NMR and passed onto the ADS for inclusion in its online catalogue ArchSearch.
The inclusion of information in ArchSearch will enable users search for the latest information pertaining to a particular site, type of monument and so on and either provide direct web links through to the grey literature reports or at least act as a pointer to the physical holding place of a report or archive. Grey literature reports are also being made available directly through the ADS Library, where it will be possible to search and retrieve reports based on a variety of different data fields. It is hoped that the OASIS project will facilitate the rapid flow of information from producer to user.