ABOUT

The BIAA Digital Repository aims to store, manage and preserve digital archaeological and other research data for Türkiye and the Black Sea region. The BIAA physical collections include pottery, animal bone and botanical reference collections, as well as photographic, squeeze, and map collections, and archaeological documents and drawings stored in the BIAA’s Ankara premises. All requests to consult the BIAA’s physical collections in person must be sent to the Resource Manager at least two weeks in advance. 

The work of digitising these physical archives has been ongoing since the 2000s. During this time, the BIAA used a bespoke database to store this data. Since 2018, the Digital Repository Office has been working to transform the old digital database to a new standardised information system, which was launched in March 2023. The new repository brings together both born-digital and digitised analogue data from the BIAA collections, and provides open access to valuable information on past and ongoing research projects and events organised or funded by the Institute. 

The BIAA Digital Repository uses an Islandora 8 Open Source System with a Drupal 9 frontend, Qualified Dublin Core & MODS standards. Open access repository policies were adapted, and work to apply FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and to use controlled vocabularies (e.g. Getty TGN, LCSH, VIAF, GBIF, IPNI etc.) is ongoing. 

Our overall aim is to link data between collections, as well as between collections and publications, archaeological information and relevant authorities, using Creative Commons licences. The Digital Repository continues to grow as new digitisation and research projects are completed.