About Us

Data management

Find out about how we manage a range of resources to ensure data about our historic environment is accessible to all.

We manage a series of projects and resources, including data standards, to ensure that data about Scotland’s historic environment is easily accessible to all. These initiatives include developing new aspects of Canmore, the online catalogue of Scotland’s historic environment.

As well as creating and sharing our own data, we bring together historic environment data held by many other bodies through the PastMap website.  

We are key partners in the SHED Strategy, and liaise with:

  • local authorities
  • national government bodies
  • museums and archives
  • the National Trust for Scotland and other national organisations
  • third sector groups

Data enhancement

We enhance the data held in Canmore on an ongoing basis, working in collaboration with internal and external partners.

We encourage streamlined reporting for fieldwork through:

Our mapping initiatives are building up a picture of Scotland’s places, and we’re creating new ways for users to spatially interpret the historic environment.

As part of our Key Performance Indicators, we measure the quality of Canmore's data against a minimum standard for place records, and use the results to drive improvements to the data.

Sharing and access

Our Data Management Team:

  • promotes access to and the sharing of data about Scotland’s historic environment
  • is responsible for meeting Scottish Government expectations on sharing spatial data through SpatialData.gov.scot 
  • gives guidance on standards, including for Ordnance Survey products like the OS MasterMap database and period maps
  • conducts research with partners to explore future online developments, e.g. ‘linked data’ and ‘spatial data infrastructures’
  • has developed expertise in managing and sharing marine and maritime data, the use of which is increasing

Historic environment marine data can also be accessed through MEDIN (Marine Environmental Data and Information Network).

Historic Environment Scotland is a MEDIN-accredited Data Archive Centre.

Specialist User Recording Environment (SURE)

This innovation helps to get new data uploaded online and made available to users as efficiently as possible.

SURE partners can simply log in to Canmore and instantly publish the results of their work to the database.

For more information on SURE, email mike.middleton@hes.scot.

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