The GCI—in collaboration with Jordan's Department of Antiquities (DoA) and the World Monuments Fund—is developing a bilingual Arabic-English Web-based national geographic information system (GIS) for the DoA. The GIS, once completed, will serve as the primary tool for the DoA in its ongoing work to inventory, monitor, and manage Jordan's vast number of archaeological sites. After its implementation in Jordan, MEGA-J will be adapted for Iraq.

Learn more about the MEGA-J project.

The relaunched course, the sixteenth one since its inception in 1976, is being coorganized by ICCROM, the University of Venice, UNESCO-Bresce, the Italian Ministry of Culture, and the GCI. Participants for the course, which will take place in Venice, Italy, from April 16–July 3, 2009, have been selected.

Learn more about this course.

GCI scientists have modified and applied enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)—a technique commonly used by hospitals and research laboratories to identify disease in tissue samples—to identify proteins (such as animal glue, egg, and milk) in binding media, as well as polysaccharides in plant gums. The technique is highly sensitive, relatively simple, and cost-effective.

Learn more about this technique.

The GCI, the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, and the Slovak National Library, have organized a three-year course that aims to advance the field of photograph conservation in southern, central, and eastern Europe and to build a network of conservation professionals in the region. A July 2008 three-week workshop in Bratislava, Slovakia, has been followed by the current distance-mentoring phase of the course, in which participants are working with instructors through a course Web site.

Learn more about this course.

Edited by Giulia Caneva, Maria Pia Nugari, and Ornella Salvadori

This book brings together wide-ranging scientific contributions from the field of plant biology relating to the biodeterioration and conservation of art, architecture, and archaeological sites around the world.

Learn more and order online.

Guiding Principles
Robin Letellier, with contributions by Werner Schmid and François LeBlanc

This book provides heritage managers and decision makers with information on how to integrate recording, documentation, and information management into the conservation process.

Access this publication online.

Illustrated Examples
Edited by Rand Eppich and Amel Chabbi

This companion volume to the Guiding Principles highlights a wide variety of projects, tools, and techniques through illustrated case studies that demonstrate the way heritage conservation decisions were reached through the appropriate use of documentation.

Access this publication online.

Edited by Erica Avrami, Hubert Guillaud, and Mary Hardy

This thirteen-essay volume is a multifaceted effort to review the broad range of studies that inform earthen architecture conservation.

Access this publication online.

Learn more about the GCI's Earthen Architecture Initiative.

This report explains the process of undertaking a citywide historic resource survey and provides information and research to guide the process.

Access this publication online.

This eight-minute video examines a March 2008 training workshop in Vat Phou, Lao PDR, organized by the GCI and partners in Southeast Asia. It was the first of a series of capacity-building field workshops for mid-career professionals from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. Future workshops will be held at other World Heritage sites in the region.

Watch the video online.

On November 8, 2008, moderator Frances Anderton of KCRW's DnA: Design and Architecture and a panel of cultural heritage experts and environmentalists discussed the ways climate change impacts the historic built environment and how best to meet this challenge. Organized by the GCI and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Watch the video online.

Recently acquired titles in the Conservation Collection in the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute are available to readers at the Getty Center. Some materials are available through your library's interlibrary loan service.

Access the list of titles from the GCI Information Center page.