- abstracts from more than 180 journals and conference proceedings from the conservation field’s essential literature (see literature list)
- abstracts from hundreds of other publications from heritage conservation and allied fields covering literature from antiquity to the present
- abstracts categorized by discipline, technique, and materials (see categories)
- international coverage: publications from North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia
- subject-specific bibliographies developed for the Conservation Institute’s work
AATA
Abstracts of International Conservation Literature
About
AATA is a free research database containing over 170,000 abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage. Approximately 4,000 new records are added each year through regular updates. AATA has been managed and published by Getty since 1983.
History
AATA dates to 1932 and the publication, Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts. Over time, records from Technical Studies merged with those from other sources as AATA changed publishers, until arriving at Getty in 1983. When Getty became AATA’s publisher, it pursued the goal of providing an electronic publication to the field. In 2002, AATA Online was launched as a free research resource. Today it is known as AATA and managed by staff at the Conservation Institute.
Database Details
Features
Supported User Tasks
- advanced searching
- generating citations
- exporting records
- sharing records via email
- saving records and search history by session
Select AATA records include links to full-text resources available online. AATA does not provide full texts within the database nor document delivery services for the publications abstracted.
Related Resource
Conservation Collection
Much of the literature abstracted in AATA can be found in the the Conservation Collection at the Getty Library—a specialized collection of nearly 70,000 titles related to cultural heritage conservation. The collection complements the Getty Library’s general and special collections, which focus on the history of art, architecture, and archaeology. Resources in the Conservation Collection span a wide range of disciplines, from the pure and applied sciences to the humanities. The Conservation Collection is accessible through the Getty Library Catalog, and materials may be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan
Learn more about the Conservation Collection
AATA Editorial Staff
Lynda Bunting
Managing Editor, AATA
Karen Karyadi
Associate Editor, AATA
Gil Visser
Assistant Editor, AATA
Cameron Trowbridge
Manager, Research Services
AATA Contributors
Field Editors
Field Editors review abstracts in their field of expertise for technical language and relevance prior to publication.
Field editors as of July 2025
- Thomas Chase, United States, since 1976
- Marie-Claude Corbeil, Analytical Research Laboratory, Canadian Conservation Institute (retired), Canada, since 2004
- Lauren Drapala, Historic Preservation Education Foundation, since 2024
- Brian Egloff, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra, Australia (retired), since 2006
- James Gleason, National Gallery of Art, United States, since 2023
- Robin Hanson, Cleveland Museum of Art (retired), United States, since 2016
- Françoise Hanssen-Bauer, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design (retired), Norway, since 2003
- Joyce Hill Stoner, University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, Winterthur Museum, United States, since 1986 (Managing Editor, 1969-86)
- Lara Kaplan, University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, Winterthur Museum, United States, since 2021
- Marieka Kaye, University of Michigan Library, United States, since 2016
- Priya Jain, Texas A&M University, United States, since 2018
- Bertrand Lavédrine, Centre de recherches sur la conservation des collections, Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, France, since 2004
- Alice Boccia Paterakis, Missouri Historical Society, United States, since 2005
- Lucia Toniolo, Dipartimento di Chimica, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, since 2019
Volunteer Abstractors
Volunteer abstractors are an international network of conservators and heritage management professionals whose abstracting efforts supplement the work of AATA staff.
Contact
aata@getty.edu