In Swiss museums valuable treasures are broke

It is no place for a treasure chamber. Anyone who enters the "room of insects" in the basement of the natural history Museum in Berne, is for the time being, disappointed. Neon lighting, movable shelves, grey walls. It is cool and dry in this barren archive. First, as to the entomologist, Hannes Baur a wooden box with a glass window, pulling out the shelf, get the treasures to the fore. Butterflies, neatly lined up with fine needles is fixed. In another case of wasps, small dots present Parasite, barely visible. Each showcase is a small work of art. "About 2.5 million objects in this collection", says Hannes Baur.

Switzerland is rich in such archives. Not only in the major centres Zurich, Basel, Bern and Geneva. Also, St. Gallen, Ticino, Uri and Lucerne have remarkable collections. Animals, plants, fungi, stones, bones, soil samples and fossils: in Switzerland there are over 60 million objects, the hidden, mostly in the storerooms of natural history museums, Botanical gardens and universities. The findings of the report "the National importance of scientific collections of Switzerland", the Academy of natural Sciences (SCNAT) yesterday at the natural history Museum in Bern has presented.

National job

"The Switzerland international is a big Player," says Christoph Scheidegger, co-author and President of the platform "biology" of the Academy of natural Sciences. This applies, however, only the importance of the collections. The access to this scientific Estimate is, however, largely for research closed. Only 17 percent of the objects are documented digitally, the Rest can only be with great effort for the science.

to change the Academy of natural Sciences. "It is a national task, to digitize the entire collections," says Scheidegger. This means: For each object, at least the location of the find, the date and a description should be recorded. This is a document of every single collection piece. The data should finally be on a national digital research platform networked to be accessible to the public. "The huge potential of the collections lies in the networking, it gives the research a huge collection," says Christoph Beer, Director of the natural history Museum of Bern and President of the Association of natural museums.

For many nature museums in Switzerland, however, this is uncharted territory. They apply in the Public and in the policy primarily as a knowledge intermediary. You have previously meet in the first place a Cultural mission, says Beer. In addition, museums of the year, suffer for a year under the pressure of donors, the cantons and the municipalities. The digitization of the collections and the research claim are brought under these conditions into the Background.

pictures: Valuable objects in museums and universities

but This is only due to the large museums such as the natural history in Bern, which has a private team of researchers and is well positioned. The United herbaria of the University of Zurich and the ETH Zurich annually a Budget of about 800'000 Swiss francs to the plant, fungus and moss collections not only to store but to digitize and improve the infrastructure. Smaller museums, such as in St. Gallen, however, have, according to Director Toni Bürgin about a place that is dedicated to the collection of "nature-cared for historical collections and developed, their Benefits, more and more, and will eventually become obsolete," says Reto Nyffeler from the Institute of Systematic and Evolutionary botany and curator of the herbarium of the University of Zurich.

to prevent the Academy of natural Sciences. She is concerned that without future Effort of the international research is missed. The EU, for example, the importance of museums has recognized and collections as a priority research infrastructure.

professionals

the Academy and the natural history museums are now active, the lack of which has to do according to the initiators, with the advancement in science. Today, objects can also be used in ancient collecting genetic material or chemical compositions. This opens up new research approaches. Thus, climatic and ecological environment can be shown to demonstrate changes over decades or centuries on the basis of the Collection. The data from the past are now valuable to the present and the future. For example, could be demonstrated by using the collection of soil samples of the research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf, the degree of radioactive contamination of soils in Switzerland after the nuclear accident in Chernobyl.

In the next two years, the Academy intends to develop, together with the museums and universities, the strategy for the future digital research platform. By 2024, the national infrastructure is to be constructed. The Academy expects costs of around 14 million francs, which it has requested from the Federal government.

the initiators of The project hope to achieve another effect of the digitisation of the collections. For the determination of insects, plants and fungi, more and more professionals are lacking. Among other things, because the collection-based research in contrast to molecular Sciences, far less is regarded. "With the digitisation of attractive new research projects open up," says Christoph Scheidegger of the Swiss Academy of Sciences.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 17.01.2019, 21:44 Uhr