Überblick über die Sonderausstellung digitize! mit Insektenwand, historischen Sammlungsschränken und digitalen Medienstationen.

digitize!
Insights into the Research Collection

Preserving, Connecting, and Experiencing Knowledge in New Ways

How is digitalization transforming research and collections? digitize! shows how analog objects become digital data – and how this enables new ways of accessing knowledge.

At the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, collection development and digitalization connect what was long kept separate: collections, research, and the public. In this gallery, you can experience how more than 30 million collection objects are being transformed into a globally accessible knowledge infrastructure.

You can see how we systematically digitize particularly specimen-rich groups such as insects and mollusks. This process produces high-resolution image datasets, 3D models, and structured metadata. Researchers use this information to identify and describe species, analyze evolutionary relationships, and study the ecological roles of species in present and past ecosystems.

Interactive stations and insights into ongoing workflows show how research is changing within the museum and beyond. digitize! makes visible how digitalization increases access to knowledge, fosters scientific collaboration, and drives our Museum Evolution forward.

Insect Wall – Window into the Diversity of Life

In the gallery, the Insect Wall presents a particularly significant section of our research collection. It comprises around 15 million insects in all shapes and colors. Beetles with metallic sheen, delicate butterflies, intricate dragonflies – each is a small wonder of evolution.

The Insect Wall makes visible how diverse and important these animals are for life on Earth. They pollinate plants, decompose organic material, and sustain ecological cycles. In times of biodiversity loss, it also reminds us how closely our lives are linked to their existence.

What does collection development mean?

In our research collection, we hold millions of objects for research, education, and many other purposes – animals and plants, fossils, minerals, meteorites, and documents. Each object tells a story about the Earth, life, and the history of science. Many of these treasures have remained hidden until now.

As part of collection development, we secure them and make them visible. We examine, identify, and describe each object: where does it come from? When was it collected? What insights does it provide into evolution, biodiversity, or climate? We record this information in databases, enrich it with photographs, scans, and 3D models, and connect it digitally. In this way, a growing knowledge network emerges, linking past, present, and future.

Collection development is more than data capture – it creates new knowledge. We use modern methods, from automated image analysis to artificial intelligence, to unlock our holdings in new ways, share knowledge, and facilitate access to research. At the same time, collection development also includes securing and preserving the physical objects – and the knowledge they contain – under optimal conditions for future generations. Only in this way can both analog and digital resources continue to generate lasting value.

The Digitization Lab – Experience Research Live

You can experience how we preserve and make knowledge accessible live in digitize!. Staff and volunteers digitize collection objects there every day – from insects to snails and mussels. Four modern stations currently demonstrate how collection development works in the 21st century:

  • Station Titan creates high-resolution overview images of entire insect drawers.
  • Station Europa photographs the finest structures with microscopic precision.
  • Station DISC3D scans insects in three dimensions and produces 25,000 images per object.
  • Station DORA digitizes large groups of objects such as snails and mussels.

Here, an open digital knowledge infrastructure is created in real time – open, transparent, and accessible.