Web-Enabling of Architectural Heritage Inventories

Surveys and inventories of the built environment have improved the understanding of the state of existing heritage structures and historic districts and assisted in their preservation by thorough and consistent documentation. Unfortunately, full exploitation of these resources has been impeded by their static, non-interactive nature as printed documents (ie, reports or maps). This article presents recent attempts to improve access of such resources through their web-enablement. Specifically, issues of usability, relevance, contemporaneousness, and spatial integration are evaluated. These requirements are considered with respect to a new resource, Historic Ireland's Built Environment and Road Network Inventories Access (HIBERNIA). This integrated, extendable database and geographic information system (GIS) is featured as an example of how access to these surveys and inventories can be improved to form the basis for future developments to provide a more complete picture of heritage resources and enable innovative resource management strategies.