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CONTRIBUTION OF SIMPLE TEACHING TOOLS TO THE 
RecorDIM-INITIATIVE 
Albert Wiedemann a ' *, Francois LeBlanc b 
a FPK Ingenieur GmbH, Feurigstr. 54, 10827 Berlin, Germany - A.Wiedemann@fpk.de 
b Getty Conservation Institute, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90049, USA - 
FLeBlanc@getty.edu 
Working Group I 
KEY WORDS: Architecture, Teaching, Multimedia, Surveying, Photogrammetry, Documentation, Conservation, Toolbox 
ABSTRACT: 
The main emphasis of the RecorDIM (Recording, Documentation and Information Management) Initiative, based on the work of the 
Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and “The ICOMOS / ISPRS 
Committee for Documentation of Cultural Heritage (CIPA), is “Bridging the Gap” between Information Users and Information 
Providers in the field of Heritage Documentation. One of the gaps encountered is the users insufficient knowledge of the 
technologies and on the other side the required quality of results. The Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles funded a five- 
month scholarship for Albert Wiedemann to develop teaching materials on “Simple Geodetic and Photogrammetric Tools for 
Conservation Purposes”. The prepared material makes state-of-art techniques more accessible to conservation specialists by 
explaining them in plain language. The teaching material ranges from equipment descriptions, a glossary, movie clips to a manual for 
architectural survey and easy to use software tools for rectification. Most of the materials are simple digital hypertext documents, 
which are available on the Internet. 
1. MOTIVATION 
1.1 Introduction 
Conservation specialists, architects, architectural historians and 
conservators need high quality documentation. This is a comer 
stone for scientific foundation and high quality work on historic 
monuments. Documentation specialists from geodesy, 
photogrammetry and laser scanning could provide this data. But 
there are many obstacles in communication and mutual 
understanding between both groups. The objective of the 
RecorDIM (Recording, Documentation and Information 
Management) initiative developed by the Getty Conservation 
Institute (GCI), the International Council on Monuments and 
Sites (ICOMOS) and “The ICOMOS / ISPRS Committee for 
Documentation of Cultural Heritage” (CIPA). is to “Bridge the 
gap” between these people. 
1.2 The RecorDIM-Initiative 
The RecorDIM initiative was presented during the CIPA- 
Symposium in Potsdam, Germany in September 2001 (Letellier 
2002). During the first RecorDIM round table in March 2002 
four working groups compiled lists of gaps (Letellier & Gray 
2002). They have been summarized in six groups: 
1. Communication, terminology, definitions and mutual 
knowledge. 
2. Training and education on both sides: manuals, 
handbooks, courses, etc. 
3. Processes, working styles, resources and environment 
4. Tools for processing, data management and archiving, 
guidelines, comprehensive list of tools 
5. Resources, personal and financial. Awareness about 
the value and benefits of heritage recording is 
required. 
6. Professional Accreditation 
Based on this list of gaps the participants of this meeting 
derived a list of needs to define a range of solutions to bridge 
the gaps: 
2. SIMPLE TOOLS AND TEACHING MATERIALS 
2.1 Getting Started 
The Getty Conservation Institute is a sustaining pillar of the 
RecorDIM initiative. Motivated by an oral presentation at the 
Potsdam Symposium (LeBlanc & Gray 2002) Albert 
Wiedemann applied for a five month Conservation Guest 
Scholarship at the GCI in autumn and winter 2002/2003 with a 
proposal titled “Simple Geodetic and Photogrammetric Tools 
for Conservation Purposes”. This proposal was funded by the 
GCI to develop teaching materials. The objective was to make 
state-of-art techniques more accessible to conservation 
specialists by explaining them in plain language under usage of 
modem communication techniques. The teaching material 
ranges from equipment description, a glossary, movie clips to a 
manual for architectural survey and easy-to-use software tools 
for rectification. The idea was to contribute the results of this 
scholarship to the RecorDIM initiative and distribute this 
material to the interested public, primarily via the Internet. 
This scholarship could contribute to bridge, or at least to 
downsize, the gaps in the fields of communication, by 
integrating an information provider in a typical user institution 
and by presenting tools and options to information users. The 
* Corresponding author. This is useful to know for communication with the appropriate person in cases with more than one author.