Volume 25, Number 6
Apr 2002

Hornemann Institute Offers to Publish Dissertations on Net

In the February 2002 Restauro there is a news story about the Hornemann Institute for the Preservation of World Cultural Heritage, in Hildesheim. It is offering graduates of conservation programs the opportunity to publish their dissertations on the Internet, in order to make them more widely available.

Details are explained in English on the Institute's website, http://www.hornemann-institut.de/:

Many degree dissertations by conservators-restorers contain important new research results and are therefore of considerable scientific value. However, they often don't meet with much interest and are stored away in their respective universities. Very few of these dissertations will eventually be published with due credit to their authors.
We offer conservators-restorers a site where they can present their work. Quick publication on the Internet gives them an opportunity to establish their reputation on the international level. New professional contacts and chances for professional exchange may easily result from this.
The Institute offers to publish the abstract, table of contents, some illustrations and an English abstract (or a German one, if the thesis is in English). After getting permission from the main tutor to publish the entire work, publication will proceed.
The Hornemann Institute also offers documentation software and a database of information. Both are called hericare (heritage conservation and restoration experience). The documentation software is available in English and German; a French version is being developed.

The information sheet sent to Abbey Publications by e-mail says this about the documentation software:

"With the help of the documentation program hericare-docu, conservators can create documentation records of their current preservation projects in a fast, easy and inexpensive way. The structure of the documentation program stays on a general level, so as to guarantee that all areas of specialization can be covered. Each record will be subdivided into the chapters Object Identification, Object History, Materials and Methods, Condition, Treatment Plan, and Measures. Users can attach existing files to particular input fields, or copy text blocks from existing text files and paste them into the input fields. Drop-down menus and internal databases for literature, pictures, investigations, addresses and products assist them in their documentation work. Export/import-functions facilitate the cooperation of several participants in a project. A summary of each documentation record adds to clarity."

With the help of the program's conversion tool, the record files can be converted into a common file format. In this way, users can easily edit a report in their own text processing program, adapting it, for example, to their corporate design, or to special requirements of their clients. By importing the files to the Hornemann Institute, documentation records which have been created by means of hericare-docu can be published in the online hericare-database.