Project
LONG-TERM STORAGE OF BUILT HERITAGE REPORTS
DANS & BOND VAN NEDERLANDSE BOUWHISTORICI (BNB)
To improve the quality of built heritage management, it has been common practice in the Netherlands for several decades to draw up so-called value assessments and exploratory reports. This is usually done by independent agencies. Previously, the results of these studies were not stored centrally, as is common in archaeology, for example. The new Built Heritage Research Guidelines (2024) now require reports to be uploaded to DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services), the national centre of expertise and repository for research data.
Under the auspices of E-RIHS, DANS – the Dutch national centre of expertise and repository for research data – and the Association of Dutch Architectural Historians (BNB) are jointly initiating a search for “invisible” or forgotten and poorly accessible architectural history research reports and databases with a view to their long-term storage in digital form. Architectural historians need this information. Following an inventory at BNB members and a workshop with DANS, in the autumn of 2023 twelve parties began mapping, digitising and storing several thousand reports and data files.
A number of BNB members have produced a comprehensive manual detailing all the steps involved in digitally recording architectural history reports. As well as uploading data and choosing the right keywords, dating methods and location references, this publication covers creating an account, making the reports GDPR-proof and choosing the right licence. Entitled Stap voor Stap door DANS (Step by Step through DANS), it is now available online on the BNB website. It has been undergoing testing since July 2024 and the first reports have already been deposited. Now all BNB members and other architectural historians in the Netherlands can submit their reports to DANS!