Beetles, Birdsong, and Books: Digital access to collections at a natural history museum and its library

Abstract

‘From 30 million collection objects to networked research’ is the mission of the Berlin natural history museum’s Science Programme Digital World and Information Science, home to the museum’s library. How can collection access innovations in this Science Programme inspire future library intiatives? This poster discusses Zoosphere, an initiative to provide on-demand virtual access to small objects such as those in the museums’ insect collection, as well as Stadtnatur Entdecken, which is connecting Berlin nature lovers to the museum’s archive of animal sounds via a mobile species-identification app. Then it asks how these initiatives can inform a future digital resource on the rare books from the former library of the Berlin Friends of Natural Science, which now form the heart of the museum’s library.

Except otherwise noted, this poster “Beetles, Birdsong and Books...” is © Leslie Kuo under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0). The following third-party material is used with permission. Logos © Leibniz Gemeinschaft, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit, EFRE, the European Union, the City of Berlin, and Synthesys, respectively. Beetle photos by Zoosphere used under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. Zoosphere website © Zoosphere. “Naturblick” app design © Stadtnatur Entdecken. Historic bookplate from museum library: public domain.