Online survey: The Nara Document on authenticity

The year 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the Nara Document on Authenticity. Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs is planning a conference to celebrate this anniversary in October 2014.
ICOMOS Japan will cooperate with the Agency on this event. As part of the preparation, Prof. Toshiyuki Kono, a member of ICOMOS Japan and the Executive Committee, has taken the initiative to plan the conference. This is part the preparation for the 2014 ICOMOS General Assembly in Florence as well.

As an important step toward these meetings in 2014, an online survey on the Nara Document has been created in four languages. It can be found by clicking here. If you could complete this survey or forward this to your colleagues and friends, ICOMOS Japan would be very grateful. The submission deadline is January 15th, 2014.

Arches: new open source heritage inventory & management system

The GCI and World Monuments Fund have just released Arches version 1.0, a user-friendly, open source information management software system built specifically to help heritage organizations safeguard cultural heritage sites worldwide.

Find out more at archesproject.org



Source: GCI e-Bulletin: December 2013

World Heritage: New resources

The World Heritage Centre has made available new tools and documents: 

"Managing Cultural World Heritage" reference manual This manual provides guidance for States Parties and all those involved in the care of World Heritage cultural properties on how to comply with the requirements of the World Heritage Convention. It also aims to help States Parties to ensure that heritage has a dynamic role in society and harnesses, but also delivers to others, the mutual benefits that such a role can create. Free download from : http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1078/

"Celebrating 40 years of the World Heritage Convention" This electronic publication provides the vivid record of the three-day landmark event, which was organized jointly by the Government of Japan and UNESCO World Heritage Centre, in Kyoto, Japan, 6-8 November 2012. During the Closing Event, challenges the Convention faced in its early years as well as today's key issues in the World Heritage community, were discussed. Free download from http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1077/

And the new database, "State of Conservation of World Heritage properties".
State of Conservation (SOC): The very significant number of reports prepared by the UNESCO Secretariat and the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee represents an exceptional and extensive documentation on various conservation issues. It is one of the most comprehensive monitoring systems of any international conventions, through a global network of sites.
Website