The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin houses a unique research collection that is of utmost importance for answering highly topical and future research questions. Over the next ten years, we will digitally tap this unique resource to make it accessible worldwide and at any time.
We are letting our visitors participate live in the digitization of the 30 million objects in our collection: In a pilot project, the complete hymenoptera collection is currently being processed and digitally indexed within the exhibition. With around 2.3 million objects, it is one of the largest sub-collections of the museum and includes bees, wasps and ants. The collection includes valuable type specimens, already extinct species and animals collected over a hundred years ago or across all continents. It is therefore of particular importance with regard to research into the extinction of bees and insects currently under observation.
In the coming years we will rebuild the collection according to the latest scientific standards and equip it with a digital data set. The existing, analogue documentation will be transferred into databases and supplemented with 2D and 3D digitised images. With the help of the world's first 3D insect scanner developed in Darmstadt, "digital twins" are even created.
On Instagram we offer a special view into live digitization.
Event information
- Topic: Guided tour into live digitisation
- with Bernhard Schurian, team digitization at the Museum of Natural History
- Registration: We show this insight live on Instagram.
Related links
- You can find an overview of further digital offers here: #forNature digital.
- A collection opens: live digitization
- Help us with the digitization of our collection: Bees & Bytes