Part I of this volume aims to convey numerous considerations, lessons, and useful information resources for building and applying inventories to cultural heritage conservation and management. It contains four chapters: Chapter 1 proposes nine key qualities that information within an inventory would ideally possess to maximize its effective use for heritage protection, conservation, and management. Chapter 2 describes common types of infrastructure, resources, and activities utilized by many heritage organizations around the world to support their inventories and to help realize the qualities proposed in chapter 1. Chapter 3 focuses on key considerations for heritage organizations seeking to establish, modernize, invigorate, or increase the effectiveness of their heritage inventories. The final chapter in part I, chapter 4, provides an overview of the current state of the open-source Arches Heritage Data Management Platform and how it is being deployed by heritage organizations around the world to serve their inventory and survey programs.
The information presented is based on the GCI’s experiences, research, and engagement with others in the heritage field over the past two decades dealing with various aspects of heritage inventories in a variety of geographic contexts. The considerations, lessons, and pointers that follow are presented from the viewpoint of maximizing the effectiveness of inventories as tools, serving the ultimate aims of heritage protection, conservation, and management. This focus on effectiveness has been informed by the practice of results-based management, which is based on defining specific desired results, or management objectives, and then monitoring and evaluating the extent to which those results have been achieved (UNESCO. 2022. Results-Based Programming, Budgeting, Management, Monitoring and Reporting (RBM) Approach as Applied at UNESCO: Guiding Principles. Paris: UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000177568).