Resumen de Management, access to information and technology mediation: Archaeology research communication and database geoprocessing in dialogue with social museology
Samuel Ayobami Akinruli, Luana Carla Martins Campos Akinruli, Carlos Magno Guimaraes
The Historic Archeology Laboratory of the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences of the Federal University of Minas Gerais was implemented in 1995 to develop training, research and extension activities in the area of Historical Archeology, focused fundamentally on themes related to the societies of Minas Gerais state – Brasil, from the beginning of colonization, at the end of the seventeenth century, to the present time. Based on the reputable research results for decades, it has established itself as a Center for Reference and Research in Human Sciences (CRPCH), in order to promote actions aimed at safeguarding its collections, as well as providing access and dissemination of scientific knowledge. In this sense, inventory, organization and musealization actions of its collections have been on the horizon of activities, which contemplate technological innovation. It is worth mentioning the production of a digital platform that allows not only access to interfaces of the database with information of developed projects by the Laboratory, but also the geoprocessing of the information (of this database), which includes the geolocation of the archeological sites spatially inserted in the Southeast and Midwest regions of Brazil. Thus, through the democratization of access to scientific information, exhibitions and reflections on the nature of the archeological vestiges, the implantation of archaeological sites and the heterogeneity of the resulting collections are encouraged herein. Among the already obtained main results of this information treatment project, which started in January 2019, is the creation of the digital platform and the beginning of geoprocessing activities. The specific procedures already carried out deals with the chronological organization of CRPCH projects developed over the last two decades to define an institutional memorial. This entails the resumption and revision of the preexisting inventory with its reordering in new collections; the construction and feeding of the database with information from the produced research reports and through the design of navigation sheets – Archaeological Project form, Archaeological Site form (Prospecting form), Archaeological Collection form (Archaeological Rescue) –; the survey of bibliographic production of the CRPCH researches for online library/access; the website programming in progress with the insertion of the institution's information, projects and its available collections, as well as the georeferencing of all availaible data. In this communication, we will unfold the example of two archaeological sites amongst the total of thirty research projects developed by the CRPCH. In order to integrate the information produced over a quarter of a century, reflections on contemporary practices in the management of collections and university collections, discussions based on Social Museology, and the relevance of CRPCH’s understanding as a space of formation, not only for university researchers and students, but also for users who are non-university-members. In the processes of mediation and appropriation of knowledge about material heritage, and as a result of the immateriality of cultural practices, there is still concern about possible ways to ensure the dissemination of Brazil's cultural diversity, in order to curb the barriers to knowledge and promote the understanding of multiple representations of the social groups that form the Brazilian society in an interdisciplinary dialogue.
