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Web based resources

Academia.edu
Launched in 2008 and now helps 300,000 academics a month answer the question 'who's researching what?' Link
This includes a dedicated page for the UrbanDesign mailing list which will show you fellow members already on Academia.edu. You can see their papers, research interests, and other information. Link

The Archaeology Data Service (ADS)
supports research, learning and teaching with high quality and dependable digital resources. It does this by preserving digital data in the long term, and by promoting and disseminating a broad range of data in archaeology. The ADS promotes good practice in the use of digital data in archaeology, it provides technical advice to the research community, and supports the deployment of digital technologies. Link

Architecture and Design Scotland
Inspiring better quality design and architecture in the public & private sectors A+DS Launch 'LUDO' Initiative (A+DS 06/01/09) Architecture + Design Scotland (A+DS), has unveiled its latest initiative called LUDO - the Library of Urban Design Online. LUDO is an online library of weblinks related to a broad scope of Urban Design Issues. Link

The Architectural Heritage Fund
The Architectural Heritage Fund is a registered charity founded in 1976 to promote the conservation of historic buildings in the UK. It does this by providing advice, information and financial assistance in the form of grants and low interest working capital loans for projects undertaken by building preservation trust (BPTs) and other charities throughout the UK.
Link
Link to Annual Review

Architectural Humanities Research Association
AHRA is a non-profit academic organisation that provides an inclusive and comprehensive network for researchers in architectural humanities across the UK and overseas. It promotes, supports, develops and disseminates high-quality research in the areas of architectural history, theory, culture, design and urbanism. Link

The Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)®
The AAT is a structured vocabulary of around 34,000 concepts, including 131,000 terms, descriptions, bibliographic citations, and other information relating to fine art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, and material culture. Link

BCIN
BCIN, the Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network, is the Web's most complete bibliographic resource for the conservation, preservation and restoration of cultural property. A worldwide network of libraries and documentation centres contribute data on their combined holdings, including previously unavailable material from private sources, to the BCIN database. Available online since 1987, BCIN is a trusted resource for professionals, museums and other heritage organizations. It now contains nearly 200 000 citations. Link

The Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network (BCIN) provides access to over 190,000 bibliographic citations for conservation literature. BCIN includes citations from the Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (prior to 1998), technical reports, conference proceedings, journal articles, books and audiovisual and unpublished materials. The database also includes previously unavailable material from private sources, as well as new information gathered by a worldwide network of contributors. Link

British History Online
British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, we aim to support academic and personal users around the world in their learning, teaching and research. Link
Parliament Rolls of Medieval England. Transcriptions from the manuscript rolls of all parliaments which survive for the period 1275 to 1504. The transcriptions - in Latin, Anglo-Norman or Middle English - are presented in parallel with a modern English translation. There is also a description of each parliament of the period, including for those of which no roll survives. Link

The BRE British Stone List
BRE has been involved with a number of major projects on the testing and assessment of natural stones currently produced in the UK. The largest project was part of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) Partners in Technology Programme and was jointly funded by the then DETR and the UK stone producers. The first phase of the programme began in April 1996, dealing with limestones; the second phase, on sandstones, started in the Autumn of 1997. The information was compiled for the web in 2001. Link

Council of Europe Conventions:
Complete list: Link

Core Data Index to Historic Buildings and Monuments of the Architectural Heritage
This presents the definitions of the headings proposed for the Core Data Index. Link

Cultural Heritage
A search engine about the conservation of cultural heritage, restoration and maintenance of the architecture, preservation of the urban landscape Link

Dictionary of Scottish Architects 1840-1940
The Dictionary of Scottish Architects (DSA) is a database providing biographical information and job lists for all architects known to have worked in Scotland during the period 1840-1940, whether as principals, assistants or apprentices. Link

Doctorate English Program Resource
The project is a comprehensive and informative resource that systematically sorts out the available business undergraduate and graduate programs available today in the U.S. This information is very valuable to students today who are not only dealing with the competitive nature of higher education, but also the rising costs of it. Link

Energy Efficiency in Historic buildings Bibliographic Database: Link

England’s Sites and Monuments Records and Historic Environment Records: Link

The English strand of the UK archives network
The A2A database contains catalogues describing archives held locally in England and Wales and dating from the eighth century to the present day. Link

European Heritage
The 4th European Conference of Ministers responsible for the Cultural Heritage organised by the Council of Europe in Helsinki in May 1996 recommended that consideration be given to: "setting up a permanent information system (European Heritage Watch Network) to keep authorities, professionals, researchers and training specialists in touch with heritage developments in other countries, drawing upon the Council of Europe’s earlier report on architectural heritage policies in Europe..." to cover both the architectural heritage (monuments, groups of buildings and sites) and the archaeological heritage. Future inclusion of the landscape and intangible heritage sectors was forseen. Link

The European Heritage Network
Is a permanent information system gathering governmental services in charge of heritage protection within the Council of Europe. The European heritage Network focus is on cultural heritage, particularly on architectural and on archaeological heritage. Link

Explore England's Past
The Explore website provides free access to the local history materials produced by academics and volunteers as part of each county project. Resources include transcribed documents, images, text, and audio files that can be searched by location, theme, building type, time period, people and project. Link

The Funds for Historic Buildings
website is a comprehensive guide to funding for anyone seeking to repair, restore or convert for a new use any historic building in the United Kingdom (excluding the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) which is listed, scheduled or in a conservation area and of acknowledged historic merit. It includes details of virtually all substantive funding sources which specialise in historic buildings, as well as many (including a variety of regeneration programmes) which provide funding for historic building projects within a wider remit. Link

A Guide to the Description of Architectural Drawings
Guidelines, conventions, and standards for describing architectural drawings and documents, with examples and recommendations for authority files and controlled vocabularies. Link

HELM (Historic Environment Local Management)
HELM provides accessible information, training and guidance to decision makers in local authorities, regional agencies and national organisations whose actions affect the historic environment. The HELM programme was set up by English Heritage in 2004 with the aim of working with key partners to provide the tools to manage change in the historic environment with increased skill and confidence. Link

Heritage Conventions: Link

Heritage Funding Directory
Managed by The Heritage Alliance, the Directory is a free, easy to use guide to potential sources of support, financial and otherwise, for anyone seeking to undertake projects related to the heritage of the United Kingdom. As well as detailing sources of grants from trusts and foundations, the Directory also lists organisations offering loan finance, awards, scholarships and other “in kind” resources. Link

Historic Environment Information Resources Network
HEIRNET exists to: 1.develop a strategic vision for UK information systems relating to the historic environment which enables access, is geared to the requirements of users and emphasises public benefit. 2.review current developments in information systems, sharing information on developing initiatives. 3.encourage cooperative approaches to information strategy across the UK, within the context of established and developing data and technical standards. 4.encourage efficient but effective resource use and development, and economies of effort in data collection. Link

Humanities Resource List
From fine arts to political science. Link

ICOMOS documentation centre:
The Documentation Centre was created in 1965. Link Since June 2002 the database can be searched on the internet at Link It is also available on the Conservation Information Network (CIN) web site Link, of which ICOMOS is a partner. One information officer is in charge of the Documentation Centre, who is occasionally helped by documentation interns. Includes list of charters etc adopted by ICOMOS at Link

Images of England
This project aims to create a 'point-in-time' photographic record of England's listed buildings as well as offering an introduction to the huge variety of listed buildings nationally. Almost 180,000 images of listed buildings, taken for the project, along with the statutory list descriptions, can be viewed by visiting Images of England website. Link

Inexhibit museum magazine
Web magazine featuring articles on museums and exhibitions realised in collaboration with major international museums and heritage institutions. It also includes a validated web search for museums in Europe and the US. Link

JSTOR
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization with a dual mission to create and maintain a trusted archive of important scholarly journals, and to provide access to these journals as widely as possible. JSTOR offers researchers the ability to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. The journals archived in JSTOR span many disciplines. Link


Landscape Institute on-line catalogue: Link

Library of Urban Design Online (WBR)
LUDO is an online library of weblinks related to a broad scope of Urban Design Issues. Link

Looking at Buildings
An introduction to architecture with pages on Building Types, architectural styles and traditions and building materials and methods of construction, and an expanding guide and introduction to buildings in seven of England's cities. Link

National & regional heritage conservation information
links page of Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Link 1 Link 2

The Natural Stone Database for Northern Ireland The Natural Stone Database Project is a first step in addressing some of the lack of information for stone conservation in Northern Ireland. The project is a unique partnership between industry and research in Northern Ireland that combines the research knowledge of the Stone Weathering Research Group at Queen's (Professor Bernard Smith) with the extensive practical experience of Consarc Design Group (Dawson Stelfox MBE). Link

The Pevsner Architectural Guides
Published by Penguin Books, were begun in 1951 by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-83) with the aim of providing an up-to-date portable guide to the most significant buildings in every part of the country, suitable for both general reader and specialist. Link

The Pevsner Index
The Buildings of England database has over 550,000 records created from Pevsner’s Buildings of England series. Compiled by Michael Good, it is available on CD Rom. This is the second and updated edition of the database originally published by Oxford University Press in 1995. The six volumes covering London have been added since, along with revised versions of six other county volumes, and six of the newly published paperback city guides. It will be of interest to architects, art historians, librarians, researchers, planners, designers, conservators, heritage industry professionals, and fans of the series. Link

The Place Survey
This website will be closing at the end of October 2009. The purpose of this website has been to support the implementation of the 2008 Place Survey.After the website has closed visit: Link Contact

RCAHMS research databases
There are a number of databases available for you to search. Access to all of these is free of charge. Link

Researching Historic Buildings in the British Isles
Would you like to find out more about the history of your house? Do you want to research an historic building? Is it in the United Kingdom or Ireland? If so this guide by Jean Manco will start you on the detective trail. Some information could be just a few clicks away, but to get the full story you will need to visit libraries and archives. Researching Historic Buildings points the way. It includes hints on planning a research programme, and clues to finding and understanding useful sources for building history, such as maps and deeds. There are bibliographies on everything from architects to Victorian architecture. There are quick guides to archives. There are introductions to a wide range of building types, architectural styles, and the development of towns and villages. Ecclesiastical sources are such a big topic that The Church gets a large section to itself. Link

Resource for Urban Design Information
(RUDI) is a multimedia Internet resource for teaching, research and professional activity in urban design and its related disciplines. Urban design in this context includes the physical design, management, planning and use of buildings and landscape in terms of their relationship to public and open space. Link

Rethinking Housing Refurbishement
This project takes a long hard look at current refurbishment standards and demonstrates just how much can be done to improve the way we renovate homes. Link

RIBA British Architectural Library
The RIBA British Architectural Library is the largest and most comprehensive resource in the United Kingdom for research and information on all aspects of architecture. It is one of the finest collections of architectural material in the world. Link

Scran
Scran is a charity & online learning resource base with over 360,000 images & media from museums, galleries, archives and the media. It peak serves 980,000 hits a day. Link

The Sust. Initiative
The Sust. initiative was developed by The Lighthouse in collaboration with the Architecture Policy Unit at the (then) Scottish Executive in 2002 in order to raise public awareness of sustainable design and the contribution it can make in delivering a sustainable future, and improve an understanding of sustainable design for those commissioning new buildings. Sust. Phase II was launched in September 2004. Link

The Sylvia Waddilove Foundation UK
The Foundation makes grants for various purposes in including the preservation of buildings. The Trustees have for the start of 2013 allocated as a one off, an increased pot of funds to award specifically for the preservation of buildings. Below are the parameters relating to these allocated funds.
Link

TORC
Is a service of the Archaeology Training Forum, operated by the Council for British Archaeology and supported by English Heritage. It is an information service for anyone interested in courses and training in archaeology, from GCSE and A level courses through to specialised training for professional archaeologists. Link

Understanding Conservation
Practitioner support for building conservation accreditation. The aim of this site is to offer assistance and guidance to practitioners who are presenting their experience to various professional institutes to gain accreditation of building conservation skills. It is not a course nor does it provide an easy route to accreditation, what it does seek to achieve is to influence your way of thinking and provide you with a self-assessment regime that will assist you in compiling an appropriate body of evidence to demonstrate your accrued knowledge across a range of project. Link

The Urban Conservation Glossary (Internet Version - Beta Release)
Was produced by Neil Grieve as a teaching tool for use on the acclaimed postgraduate course on European Urban Conservation. It is now widely used in a variety of institutions across the UK and beyond. Continually updated, an expanded version printed by E&FN Spon as The Language of Urban Conservation will be available at the end of the year. Produced in conjunction with Town & Regional Planning, University of Dundee. Link

Victoria County History
Founded in 1899 and originally dedicated to Queen Victoria, the VCH is an encyclopaedic record of England's places and people from earliest times to the present day. It is without doubt the greatest publishing project in English local history, having built an international reputation for scholarly standards. Based at the Institute of Historical Research in the University of London since 1933, the VCH is written by historians working in counties across England. Link

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