Vol. IX, No. 3

November, 1996

The work of the Executive Service Corps with CSA's Board (see "Executive Service Corps Assisting CSA," in the May, 1995, CSA Newsletter) has been concluded. As a result of the contributions of Bill Hill and Bob Hoe, the Executive Service Corps consultants, the Board has begun to carry out some new plans. In addition, Mr. Hill and Mr. Hoe helped to encourage the Directors to restate clearly the mission of the organization, which had not been re-examined since shortly after the Center was founded. This was especially valuable in light of the fact that the original mission had not included the Archaeological Data Archive Project.

The following mission statement is the result of the deliberations involving the Directors and the Executive Service Corps consultants:

The basic mission of CSA is to help make the fruits of scholarship in architectural history and archaeology more widely, more easily, and more fully available to scholars and to the general public. In particular, our aim is to assist those scholars who wish to take advantage of the capabilities of modern computing technology to compile, preserve, and present information gathered in the course of scholarly research projects.

Given the value of electronic information and the problems presented by its use, CSA is devoted to the encouragement of appropriate use of computer technologies. Appropriate use means not only using the best technology for a specific job but also using that technology well and wisely. Appropriate use also includes stewardship of the data gathered.

Therefore, CSA will

• work with various technologies related to the gathering, preserving, and presenting of scholarly information in architectural history and archaeology
• share the results of that work with the scholarly community through various means, including the CSA Newsletter
offer training to other scholars
• provide personnel for appropriate projects when possible - both to assist in the projects and to provide better opportunities for testing and refining techniques of data gathering
• assist scholars in the preparation of data for long-term archival storage of those data
• assist scholars with processes that promote sharing such data
• provide archival storage for such data
• cooperate with and encourage other organizations in their archival activities (For example, the computer committee of Archaeological Institute of America helped to define the aim and scope of the archive, and the AIA and the American Anthropological Association have endorsed the Archaeological Data Archive Project.)

Nothing in the foregoing is really new, but the effort in making a clear, concise statement of the Center's mission helps to focus all involved on the job at hand - and to make it clear to others what that job is. Of prime importance to all the Directors is the emphasis on cooperation between CSA and other individuals or organizations interested in creating, using, and storing computerized data.

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Table of Contents for the Nov, 1996 issue of the CSA Newsletter (Vol. 9, no. 3)

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