Documentation in conservation and the importance of the register of intangible cultural heritage

Documentation of cultural heritage is the most fundamental task of conservation. Documentation that arises from this process is the starting point for all other tasks and procedures involved in the safeguarding of cultural heritage. Thoroughly and expertly documented architectural heritage is indispensable in the process of successful protection and quality presentation of immovable cultural heritage, While the principal objective of documenting material heritage has remained essentially unchanged in the century of conservation activities in Slovenia there have been significant changes in documentation procedures as well as possibilities offered by the collected documentation. The most important changes have occurred within the last decades when computer data processing started to be used extensively also in conservation. Documentation is increasingly digital, and as such available for wider use also in conservation.