Paper title: Conservation Space: An Open Source Application for the Digital Management of Conservation Information

Presenter: Mervin Richard, Chief of Conservation at the National Gallery of Art

 This presentation will describe the progress and current focus of “ConservationSpace”, an open source application for digital management of conservation information. The first phase of the multi-institutional effort to develop ConservationSpace was completed in 2009, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. With continued support from the Mellon Foundation, several institutions are now defining the technical requirements and scope of work required to build the application. 

ConservationSpace is envisioned as an application that will support the work of conservators and conservation scientists; improve management of their documents, images, and related scientific data; and simplify the process of sharing information with a broader audience. It will be designed to function both as a stand-alone application or one that exchanges information with other software, e.g., a collection management application. 

Session Info

Type: Individual Paper

Keywords: ConservationSpace, conservation, documentation, document management, workflow.

Relevance: This presentation is geared toward conservators, scientists, curators, and collection managers who create or use documents produced by conservators and scientists.

Presenter Bio:

Mervin Richard is the chief of conservation at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Prior to joining the National Gallery staff in 1984 he worked as a painting conservator at the Intermuseum Conservation Association in Oberlin, Ohio, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Winterthur Museum.  He was also an adjunct professor of painting conservation in the graduate program at the University of Delaware/Winterthur Museum.