Membership & current member organizations
Welcome to the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage (FISH). This site presents the work of the forum and contains links to recommended information resources that support best practice in recording cultural heritage.
We hope the site will give you an overview of the different documentation guidance and indexing tools available and used by our members. Please help us keep the website current and update us on any additional or future resources, initiatives and conferences.
The forum is guided by the FAIR principles for data management and stewardship. This seeks to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. For more information on the FAIR principles, please visit their website:
https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/
Become a member
Membership is free. Join by subscribing to the FISH Mailing List and participate in our forum discussions where all meeting papers and presentations are also made available. To join, go to JISCMail and select one of the three methods on how to subscribe: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/subscribers/groupsubscriptions.html
Link to FISH JISCMAIL
Forum meetings are held twice a year, to discuss strategic and technical issues and developments. The meetings combine the efforts of both FISH and HEIRNET (Historic Environment Information Resources Network), two organisations with similar interests and aims.
A smaller Terminology Working Group also meets regularly, to discuss vocabulary issues and candidate terms for the collection of thesauri and authority files produced by or on behalf of FISH.
FISH was established in 1998 as a non for profit organization. We are a formally convened group with terms of reference and a national profile. FISH is not a legal entity and we have no employed staff, income or budget. There are currently over 400 members.
Download Terms of Reference (2001)
Current member organisations
- Archaeology Data Service (ADS)
- Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers (ALGAO)
- British Museum
- Cadw (Wales)
- Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust
- Council for British Archaeology (CBA)
- Dyfed Archaeological Trust
- Historic England
- Historic Environment Scotland
- Local government Historic Environment Records (HERs)
- National Museum Wales
- National Trust
- Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)
Many organisations have helped develop FISH products of the years, some of these include British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB), Manx National Heritage, Museum of London, the National Archives, Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Service, the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
SMR Forum Scotland
For more information on Scottish heritage, please visit the HER Forum Scotland website. Like FISH, The SMR Forum enables its members to keep in touch with the latest developments and opportunities within the historic environment sector, and to develop a coordinated national approach. Member organizations include Historic Environment Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland, local authority Historic Environment Records (HERs) and Sites and Monuments Records (SMRs), and others.
Banner image: Whitby Abbey © Paul Adams.