As we continue to weather the current pandemic, many CRM firms have had to adjust their workflows to allow for employees to efficiently work from home. With workers being based in the field normally, the firms themselves are often well-suited to make these changes - but what about the industry as a whole? Dr. Chris Nicholson, Director of Digital Antiquity*, has shared his thoughts on technology and accessibility of archaeological data in a recent blog post:

CRM work is very much a client-based professional service based on federal regulations and is steeped in technology. In the CRM world today, if a SHPO isn’t physically open for an extended period of time nor has an online presence, how do you go about conducting gray literature reviews, even if you are able to go into the field? Having documents archived digitally and made accessible thus becomes incredibly important for compliance work to continue. Likewise, SHPOs who may receive digital documents may not be in a position to store them in a manner that facilitates their access within the organization, limiting their ability to help companies or agencies meet their compliance requirements.

The financial impact to archaeology likely pales in comparison to the overall economic impact that the Covid-19 pandemic will ultimately have on our nation’s economy, but the impact to the field of archaeology and historic preservation will nonetheless be felt. This period of confinement/social-distancing has given me a chance to reflect a bit on many things personally and professionally, but from a strictly professional perspective, working from home reminds me that not all organizations have the cyber-infrastructure that allows them the flexibility to work remotely with digital documents.

Read the full post on the tDAR website, and let us know your thoughts on how accessibility could change as a result of the pandemic below.

*Digital Antiquity oversees the use, development, and maintenance of the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR), an international repository for the digital records of archaeological investigations, organizations, projects, and research.