E 6 · ICT
ICT offers the potential for universal and unlimited access to built environment information, from primary data through to online interactive learning materials. Lorna Melody’s report shows that this potential is far from being realised. The historic environment sector has been slow to grasp the opportunities offered by ITC.
The reasons are not difficult to find. Many users of the internet expect to access information without paying. But the creation of that information demands financial resources and skills beyond the means of most historic sites. It is no accident that the best available internet resources are produced by English Heritage and the National Trust. The magnificent work of the National Archives shows what can be achieved. When the Public Record Office moved out of Chancery Lane, it was able to house all its records on one site. But since the move from central London reduced accessibility, they embarked on a programme to provide the maximum possible electronic access. That work has borne fruit in the popularity of its web resources for teachers, family historians and anyone interested in the history of migration to the UK. Anew momentum is now evident in interpreting the material held by the National Monuments Record (see p.77). First, all the legislation that protects the historic environment under the planning system is under review by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Equally, the designation system under which buildings, ancient monuments, conservation areas, parks and gardens and battlefields are scheduled for protection is being reviewed by the DCMS.
The experts involved have stressed that the data on which the system depends is inadequate and difficult to access: planning departments cannot rely on adequate and up to date information, let alone teachers and learners.
English Heritage, the Institute of Field Archaeologists, the Institute of Historic Buildings Conservationists and the All Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group have called for the compilation of Sites and Monuments Records to minimum standards to become a statutory duty of local authorities. Following Government consultation, the establishment of regional, rather than county-based, Historic Environment Record Centres (HERCs) is expected. These will integrate listed buildings records, ancient monument records, excavation archives, portable antiquities scheme records, the holdings of county records offices, and biodiversity data. English Heritage/the NMR is likely to play a key role in developing these centres.
The aim would be to provide a seamless service with online access to a national GIS database. For the Government, an over-riding justification for funding such centres would be to make them the focus of learning and community activity.
Building Connections
The Scottish Executive’s Policy on Architecture, published in 2001, contains a commitment to deliver, through the National Grid for Learning, online interactive teaching resource material on architecture and the built environment. Early in 2002, the Executive published a guidance document/CD ROM entitled Building Connections: The Curriculum and the Built Environment to illustrate how the built environment can be used as a context for learning and teaching, within current curriculum objectives. Later that year, the Building Connections website was launched. It develops and builds on ideas set out in the publication, providing practical tools for teachers to download and practical studies for pupils. The site is now one of the largest and broadest ranging sources of information on the built environment for schools in Europe.
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'History and heritage transmit different things to different audiences. History tells all who will listen what has happened and how things came to be as they are. Heritage passes on exclusive myths of origin and continuance, endowing a select group with prestige and common purpose. History is enlarged by being disseminated; heritage is diminished and despoiled by export; Heritage messages are restricted to an elect; Heritage keeps outsiders at bay through claims of superiority that are unfathomable or offensive to others. Bonding within the group stems from faith, not reason; we exalt our own heritage not because it is demonstrably true but because it ought to be … misreadings become cherished myths.'
David Lowenthal
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