When completed, this project will record approximately two thousand additional archaeological sites. These same types of cooperative efforts are also possible within the context of academic research. Conducted around 1915 by William Edward Myer, a self-trained archaeologist employed by the Smithsonian Institution, this survey was the first systematic statewide survey of archaeological sites. Unfortunately, Myer's untimely death in 1923 left around fifteen hundred manuscript pages of site information in relative anonymity. The current project, in addition to meeting very specific research goals, also incorporates the filing of new or revised site forms in cooperation with the Division of Archaeology.
Law mandates ready access to site locational information.
Future access to other types of information requires that scholars and researchers share the burden of responsibility to demonstrate that useful and productive research can be conducted using Site Survey Records and Site Information Files. In the electronic age, many researchers desire gratification by the instantaneous production of site lists, appropriate reports, and locations of field notes, photographs, and artifact collections. The current state of computerization of the Site Survey Records cannot meet these idealized goals. However, these goals can probably be realized within a decade with appropriate support and assistance from the professional archaeological community, the interested public, and regulatory users. Initial stages of computerization created an opportunity for researchers to manipulate data in ways that were impossible less than half a decade ago.