Elsie Touchstone, “A Better Way to Access Data: The Creation of a Microsoft Access Database for Commingled Contexts”
Mentor: Shannon Freire, Anthropology, Letters & Science (College of)
Poster #91
Data curation is central to all types of research, which is why the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery (MCPFC) Project is investing in the production of Microsoft Access databases to digitally curate data for all burial contexts. This project is based on data from the 1991-1992 excavations of Cemetery 2 (1882-1925). During excavation, three burial contexts were encountered: single, mixed, and commingled. Previous Support for Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) grants have produced more than 1,300 records in an Access database dedicated to the first two contexts – single and individuals from mixed burials. Due to the different types of data produced by osteological analyses of commingled remains, these contexts required a separate Access database. To produce the new database, researchers compared the single context analysis paperwork to the commingled analysis paperwork to identify structural similarities between the databases. Forms in Access facilitate consistent data entry; a significant challenge in this instance was the creation of forms that reflected numerous analytical scenarios. A new primary key system was developed to accommodate multiple entry forms. The result was a new database with an accompanying Standard Operating Procedure for consistency and continuity, thus making it possible to query data for present and future research.