Arches for HERs

Welcome to all who are interested in Arches for HERs, a comprehensive data management platform for UK Historic Environment Records (HERs). Arches for HERs is purpose-built for HERs and any organization that conforms to the standards specified by the Forum for Information Standards in Heritage (FISH), including MIDAS Heritage.

What is Arches for HERs?

Arches for HERs is a comprehensive data management platform for UK Historic Environment Records (HERs). It is a singular information system that includes the ability to enter, manage and publish inventory data via the web, with geospatial visualization and full integration with ArcGIS Pro, advanced querying tools, and integrated workflows for casework and consultations.

Arches for HERs is a version of the open source and freely available Arches Platform that is customized for HERs. For more about Arches, see below.

Why Arches for HERs?

Arches for HERs is purpose-built for UK Historic Environment Records (HERs).

Arches for HERs was developed with UK cultural heritage data in mind.

• • It incorporates standards as specified by the Forum for Information Standards in Heritage (FISH):
    • MIDAS Heritage – the British cultural heritage standard for recording information on buildings, monuments, archaeological sites, shipwrecks and submerged landscapes, parks and gardens, battlefields, artefacts and ecofacts.
    • FISH vocabularies – Supported by the FISH Terminology Working Group, these thesauri consist of terminology to describe heritage in the UK.
  • The geospatial features use the British National Grid coordinate system.

Arches for HERs is for UK cultural heritage organizations and professionals.

• • Arches for HERs is free to download and can be used by an unlimited number of users with no licensing restrictions.
  • Once implemented, the software is easy to use and does not require extensive training.
  • Arches for HERs enables better and efficient decision making through advanced data discovery and visualization tools.
  • The Arches Consultations module streamlines the casework and consultation process and integrates fully with the inventory data managed by Arches.

Arches for HERs is powerful and dynamic software.

Arches for HERs includes many advanced features including:

• • Geospatial visualization and search, including the ability to include both satellite, aerial, and historic map imagery.
  • Thesauri management via the Arches Reference Data Manager (RDM).
  • Integrated temporal searching and management of fuzzy dates.
  • Documentation and visualization of relationships between resources (e.g., between cultural places or objects, people or organizations, events, archives, and documents)

Arches is developed with open source tools and for non-proprietary data formats.

• • The Arches software stack includes modern software components, such as PostgreSQL and ElasticSearch, that are widely-used and regularly maintained.
  • Arches uses non-proprietary standard data formats to ensure that data is not tied to any particular software or technology.

Arches for HERs can be integrated with other systems

• • Arches Esri Link connects Arches for HERs to ArcGIS Pro, which will allow Esri users to directly access and edit Arches data from their Esri desktop GIS software and vice versa.

Arches for HERs is part of the Arches ecosystem.

Arches has a robust community of implementers, users, and supporters.

• • In order to ensure regular maintenance and active updates of the software platform, the Arches project has fostered the development of a broad user community that is invested in the software’s longevity and success.
  • The UK Users’ Group is a community-led effort that focuses on applying Arches to needs of the UK cultural heritage community.

Who will be using Arches for HERs?

Arches for HERs was developed by the Getty Conservation Institute in partnership with Historic England and the City of Lincoln for initial use by the Greater London Historic Environment Record (GLHER) and the Lincoln HER. This partnership has also produced a more generic version of Arches for HERs, which is for other UK organizations that would like to implement Arches. It eliminates the need for other HERs to repeat the process of data modeling and software customization as Arches for HERs includes specifications and processes common to most HERs.

Arches for HERs will be released in 2024. However, some of the HERs are already using an older version of the Arches software. These include:

• Lincoln Historic Environment Record
• Jersey Historic Environment Record
• Isle of Man Historic Environment Record

The Greater London Historic Environment Record instance of Arches, called GLHER Online, is currently being used internally, and is expected to be publicly launched later in 2024. For more information about GLHER Online, please watch the Arches webinar that was recorded on September 13, 2023. The Arches UK Users’ Group consists of participants from organizations and projects who are currently using Arches and who are otherwise interested in Arches.

When will Arches for HERs be available and how much will it cost?

Arches for HERs will be fully released in 2024

The software code for Arches for HERs is free to download and once implemented can be used by an unlimited number of users with no licensing restrictions. If using with the ArcGIS integration, ArcGIS Pro licenses will, of course, be required. For more information on costs and requirements for implementing Arches for HERs, please see Implementation Considerations for Arches.

About the core Arches Platform

Arches is a fully-featured data management and publishing platform, initially developed by the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund for cultural heritage inventories, that now enables data longevity and interoperability for a wide array of domains and uses. For more information about Arches, visit the Getting Started with Arches page.

Header Image: © Historic England Archive. General view of the grounds of Newstead Abbey, showing Cannon Fort from the west, with the upper lake beyond. Nottinghamshire.

Last updated: October 2023