{"id":69,"date":"2015-08-27T14:26:49","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T14:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/comment\/?page_id=69"},"modified":"2015-08-28T13:30:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T13:30:08","slug":"policies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/comment\/charting-the-digital-landscape-of-the-conservation-profession\/policies\/","title":{"rendered":"Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The community is creating and using digital resources with little guidance on best practices or the ethical issues affecting use. AIC\u2019s Guidelines for Practice <\/em>and its associated commentaries[1] which articulate policy standards for the profession, were last updated in 2008 and do not align with current policies and practices that exist in the cultural heritage community. In particular, the Guidelines<\/em> that address disclosure, confidentiality, documentation, and preservation of documentation are at odds with the principles of transparency, collaboration, and sharing necessary for effective use of information in the online environment. The process of creating and upgrading these policies also needs to be changed to be more transparent and to incorporate input and review from a broader community.<\/p>\n

But before the field addresses its own guidelines, it needs to familiarize itself with guidelines for digital practices in other communities in the cultural sector, and be aware of recent shifts in policy positions that are affecting these guidelines. For example, there is growing movement in the museum community towards more open access to collections,[2] and many cultural heritage collaborations now require openly shareable metadata as a prerequisite to participation.[3] Communities tightly allied with conservation also are developing practices that break with disciplinary traditions, such as the recent acceptance by artists and art historians of fair use guidelines for their profession.[4]<\/p>\n

These examples signal important changes in the cultural heritage sector\u2019s policy arena. Conservation must align its own policies and practices with these sectors, or risk being isolated from the communities of which it is a part. Doing so will mean changing long-established policies and traditions, and convincing colleagues that these changes are needed to position the field for the future.<\/p>\n

Recommendations:<\/em><\/p>\n

Restructure the Process for Revising the AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice (Short-term)
\n<\/em><\/u>The Guidelines<\/em> currently are written by a single task force and approved by the AIC Board of Directors. This process worked well in the past but the expansive nature of the field and its interactions with myriad cultural sectors require a more open and fast-moving process. To achieve greater agility and transparency, the process should be restructured to:<\/p>\n