The Jura-Museum is housed in the Willibalds Castle high above Eichstätt. It housed famous fossils like the Juravenator and the Eichstätt specimen of Archaeopteryx. Monument protection for the renaissance castle, the construction phase Jura-Museum and even the interior inhibit major changes in the permanent exposition. A digital museum guide was therefore developed together with a local company. It is browser-based and like that independent of system software. It can be used with the visitors smart phone or with loan tablets provided by the museum. The visitors are guided digitally to specific exponates by the guide and there provided background information at many levels. Introductory texts are accomplished by visualization, learning games, background inforamtion and videos in a way that invites the visitors to visually explore the exponate further. In the system, existing content can be implemented from publication platforms upon the right of re-use, or own content can be included, e.g. videos from the research excavation of the museum. In addition, it allows to lower barriers for people with special needs like zooming in content, having read the texts and image descriptions. The digital museum guide is a modern accomplishment of the rather classical exposition at the Jura-Museum. It allows the transfer of knowledge including ongoing research to a broad variety of visitors with timely educational approaches

There has been a mineralogical collection at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena for almost 250 years. It already existed before the start of teaching geoscientific issues. Today, it is more in demand than ever as a mediator between research activities in laboratories and the public. The museum serves as a showcase and explainer of scientific issues by using not only text but objects and is accepted by people of all ages because there is a low inhibition threshold for contact with science.

The Chair of General and Applied Mineralogy in Jena conducts research into mineralogical issues such as mining waste, the composition and thermodynamic and crystallographic changes of minerals and rocks in oxidation zones of ore deposits and their secondary formations. These are topics that may also concern and engage the general public in their private lives.

In addition to a permanent exhibition area special exhibitions are continuously presented twice a year. These are usually directly linked to research fields of the chair and always present the results of projects; Bachelor's and Master's theses are also included where possible. Some of the most recent exhibition themes were: Radiant beauties (here the focus was on primary and secondary uranium mineralization), Not all that glitters is gold (here the focus was on gold deposits and use of gold or substitute materials), From the depths to the light (primary and secondary ore minerals were the topic) and Raw materials - from cell phones to e-cars.

Image documentation is a crucial component of digitalizing museum collections — and serves as a vital bridge between scholarly research and public engagement. However, capturing images with conventional cameras can be logistically challenging due to bulky equipment and the need for technical expertise. A particularly tedious and error-prone task is renaming image files according to the inventory numbers of the objects, in order to correctly link each photograph with its corresponding dataset. This manual process adds inefficiency to an already demanding workflow.

To address these challenges, we developed DuDoku, an open-source Android camera application designed to simplify and accelerate image documentation. The app enables users to input the inventory number at the moment of capture, automatically assigning it as the image filename. Input can be done manually via touchscreen or by scanning barcodes or QR codes, when available.

As smartphone photography is part of everyday experience for most users, no specialized skills are required fort he use of the app. When connected to a cloud storage service, DuDoku supports a fast, mobile, and lightweight workflow. It reduces post-processing workload, improves accuracy, and provides a scalable solution for large-scale, in situ digitalization of museum collections.

In this presentation, we will outline how DuDoku has been integrated into the documentation workflow at Museum Wiesbaden. We will share results from over a year of active use, highlighting measurable improvements in the speed, accuracy, and overall efficiency of our digitalization processes.

Nach vierjähriger Planungs- und Umbauphase eröffnete das Museum am Schölerberg in Osnabrück im April 2023 seine rundum erneuerte Dauerausstellung. Das Highlight der neuen Ausstellungen ist das immersive Diorama eines Sumpfwaldes aus dem Späten Karbon, das sich im Zentrum des Hauses um das Original eines riesigen Stigmaria-Wurzelorgans herum erhebt. Die Rekonstruktion dieses Karbonwaldes basiert auf Funden der Fossillokalität des Piesberg im Norden Osnabrücks (Oberes Moskovium).

In die Rekonstruktion flossen aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse zu Flora, Fauna und Ablagerungsbedingungen der Piesberg-Lokalität, sowie zu ökologischen Strukturen spätkarbonischer Sumpfwälder ein (e.g. Leipner & Chellouche 2019). Die Modelle der dargestellten Lebewesen entstanden in enger Abstimmung zwischen Modellbauer:innen und Wissenschaftler:innen, um das höchstmögliche Maß an Authentizität zu gewährleisten. Augmented Reality-Stationen erwecken das Diorama zum Leben und erweitern die Vermittlungsebene auf nicht dargestellte Biotope und Interaktionen. Anfasspräparate und eine Mitmach-Station komplettieren den multisensorischen Zugang zum Ausstellungsthema.

Im Zentrum des Ausstellungsbereichs werden zu den Themen „Flora, „Fauna“ und „Ökologie“ Originalfunde vom Piesberg präsentiert. So wird die direkte Assoziation zwischen Original und Rekonstruktion geschaffen.

Durch die Einbindung des Ausstellungsbereichs „Karbonwald“ in den Erzählstrang „Klima und Klimawandel“ der neuen Dauerausstellung wird der Klimawandelbedingte Rückgang der Sumpfwälder am Ende des Karbon (Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse) in Dialog mit der Entwicklung tropischer Regenwälder im rezenten Klimawandel gesetzt und die aktuelle Relevanz der Thematik aufgezeigt.

Literatur:

Leipner, A., Chellouche, P., 2019. A newly discovered lake deposit of Pennsylvanian age (upper Moscovian, Wesphalian D) from the Piesberg quarry, Osnabrück, Northwestern Germany. Kölner Forum für Geologie und Paläontologie 23(2019), 197.

The mineralogical and petrographic collection of the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (SMNK) houses a broad collection of specimens from mineral deposits of the Black Forest. This collection includes specimens dating back to the 18th century, from the private collections of Margravine Karoline Luise, as well as specimens from the geological survey of the Grand Duchy of Baden, which was the first comprehensive geological survey of Baden, and was probably incorporated into the well-known Prussian geological survey. Expanded by ongoing collecting activities, the Black Forest collection provides historical documentation of mining in the Black Forest, as well as an important geological archive. With current considerations on the security of raw materials supply in Germany and efforts to resume mining in Baden (e.g., the Käfersteige mine near Pforzheim), the collection is also relevant outside of fundamental research efforts. Here we provide insights into the current collection management strategies, as well as digitalization efforts and digital availability of the collection.

The dialogue between science and cultural institutions is becoming increasingly important in addressing environmental issues, such as landscape degradation, climate change, and energy use. In this context, the transdisciplinary LEHA-project "UNESCO World Heritage Upper Harz Water Management System: Landscape Change and Energy Use in the Harz in the Anthropocene – A Journey of Water from the Past into the Future" was carried out in collaboration between the Samson-Mining- Museum and the University of Göttingen.

In the Early Modern Period, the Upper Harz water management system represented the most significant energy supply system for mining world-wide. This research project aimed to present the energy system through selected exhibition objects in a media station, offering a novel interpretation in the light of the Anthropocene discourse. Focusing on the Sankt Andreasberg Mining District, the study explored the anthropogenic transformations of the landscape caused by mining activities. An interdisciplinary approach was employed, combining historical archives, 3D structure-from-motion photography, fieldwork, and a didactic framework rooted in the Sustainable Development Goals.

The project highlights both the sophisticated functionality and the historical development of this water-powered energy system, exploring its spatial and temporal dimensions above and below ground. At the same time, it situates the energy system within the broader context of Earth’s natural landscape evolution and the anthropogenic transformation considering social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions. It examines the local-to-global interconnections that link past environmental transformations with future sustainability challenges at an authentic place, the Samson Mine, where regenerative energy is still produced today.