An Interview with Marti Latta

askSam Tracks Artifacts and Current Research

Professor and Consulting Archaeologist

Reprinted with Permission

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askSam:  Which product(s) are you currently using?

MARTI LATTA: At the moment, I am using askSam for Windows 2.0, but I plan to order Version 3.

askSam:  How are you using askSam?

MARTI LATTA:  I have three main uses for askSam:

1) I keep files of articles, book reviews, chapters in anthologies, obits, grey-literature reports, and all of the other hundreds of semi-publications which make up about 95% of archaeological publishing. Library files deal only with books (or with the editors of the anthologies, which is even less useful). I've now got about 15,000 references on line, together with a hypertext search program which pulls out articles by topics.  

I use these files less for my own research than for my students. When they set out to write an archaeological paper for a class, they all begin by going to the library and searching through the automated library listings (or, worse, they just wander in the aisles and hope that something will leap off the shelf at them). Science books are, for the most part, out of date before they are published. By the time there's enough material to fill a book, the topic is old stuff, not very interesting. Using my bibliography, they can discover relevant articles in very recent journals which give them an entree into the real publication world of the field.

2)  I keep note files on significant artifacts from sites which I excavate and/or analyze. These notes can be sorted, compared and output into word processing files for writing reports. Someday I'll try attaching illustrations to these records. This file consists of several thousand artifacts by now, and it grows constantly. As I learn more about each piece, I can easily locate its record and add this information.

You have to understand the quantity of data an average archaeologist deals with -- I have somewhere over half a million artifacts in my own collections, and I have no technician to care for them. With care and good computer software like askSam, I can manage by myself.

3) I keep information downloaded from the Internet for future reference. One favorite file is my "Lunatic fringe" file, which contains all serious (and some not-so-serious) discussions of Romans and Egyptians in North America, Aliens in Rome and Egypt, and Elvis on Mars.

askSam:  How has askSam made your job any easier, or faster or more efficient?

MARTI LATTA: The comments above speak for themselves, I think. I simply couldn't handle the quantity of information in my collection without askSam.

askSam:  As a user, what kind of customer support have you received?

MARTI LATTA:  Whenever I've asked a question, I have received an answer in a reasonable time. Sometimes the answer isn't very helpful, but that's not the fault of the techs!

askSam:  Would you recommend askSam?

MARTI LATTA:  I have recommended askSam, repeatedly, to colleagues who have needs that askSam could serve. Unfortunately, very few people have ever heard of askSam!  

askSam:   askSam now has a distributor in Canada!   Canadians are asked to contact  John W Smith.  You can write to him in c/o MAR Computer Systems Inc., 47 Quaker Ridge Road, Concord, Ontario - Canada L4K 2E5.   Mr. Smith  can also be reached via Email at < marcomp@msi.net > or by phone (905) 738-8105 or fax (905) 738-9340.

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Marti Latta

University Professor and Consulting Archaeologist

Division of Social Science

University of Toronto at Scarborough

1265 Military Trail

Scarborough, ON, Canada  M1A 2K1

Phone: (416) 287-7350

Fax: (416) 287-7283

Email: latta@banks.scar.utoronto.ca

URL: http://scar.utoronto.ca/~latta/