The Archives and Manuscripts of the Gunnerus Library

EiT students and Mubil

2012-01-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

A Digital laboratory. Drawing by Irene Dominquez

The Mubil project was presented today for students taking the subject "Experts in Team", TDT 4852 programvare og kunst. This is an interdisciplinary cource for masters students at NTNU University of Trondheim where students are expected to work in defining their approach and goals together as a team, in order to deliver a product at the end of the semester to the stakeholders. Alexandra Angeletaki from Gunnerus Library and and Letizia Jaccheri from the Department of Computer and Information Science presented for Roberta Proto and her "expert" students the idea and the objectives of the project. The students will work with both the development of ideas and practical applications in the frame of a cooperation between IDI and Gunnerus library. The question posed by Mubil to the students was:

How can we apply new technology in presenting heritage collections and allow our visitors to interact whith that in order to enhance learning?

Museum and libraries, created as early as in antiquity in Alexandria or Pergamon were connected to the dissemination of knowledge( Barett 2010, 46). Rarity cabinets and archives created by rich collectors in the 16th century resulted in the museum and libraries as public institutions the 18th century with a mission to educate their visitors( Dilevko 2004).

We must be aware of the power one has when in control of archive or collections of memory. Political theorist Irving Velody (1998,1) declares, the power of an archive with a broader sense, as to include all kind of objects, the “ultimate truth”. Many known scholars address the nature of the archive as an abstract concept. Foucault (1972, 129) calls it “the system of discursivity that establishes the possibility of what can be said”.

Jacques Derrida argues that archives carry political issues to be addressed as society changes “There is no political power without control of the archive, if not memory. Effective democratization can always be measured by this essential criterion: the participation in and access to the archive, its constitution, and its interpretation.”(Derrida,1995, 4, note 1).
Most disciplines will continue the dispute the nature of archives and memory representations and their political and social implications since they all constitute part of our society as it evolves because as Cook puts it its all about the

“the power of remembering over forgetting” (Cook, 2002) .

But this is a vast field of research that lies far beyond the scope of this research proposal.The research project proposed here has a more practical approach on whether the knowledge of the past can become investigated through the visitors experience and on the visitor`s premises rather than that of a powerful truth imposed by a public Institution.

The current stage: The Gunnerus library is the oldest scientific library of Norway, established in 1768 by the Norwegian Royal Society of Science in Trondheim. The Society was particularly active in collecting books, manuscripts and archaeological and natural history material from around the world and established an institutional organization that allowed all its partners that is the museum, the library and the society secretariat to have a decisive impact on the institutionalization of cultural
memory in Norway.

The Gunnerus branch (GL) of the NTNU University Library has recently agreed with the NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology in Trondheim (VM) and the Science Centre (Vitensenteret) to cooperate in establishing a new centre called the Science Centre in the area of Trondheim, known as Kalvskinnet, where the library and the museums are situated today. The actual merging of the institutions is far more than a joint cooperation for the purpose of an exhibition, a known practice otherwise.Though partnership and cooperation between such institutions is not new, the concept, of a Museum-Library entity (with technology, science, archaeology and history as its main profile pillars), as a Center to disseminate knowledge and support research, indicates a shift of focus and creates a need for farsighted planning.

From the book of Adam Lonitzer 1590

In addition to that another challenge is added since the ongoing digitization of the records
and archives of both the Museum(VM) and the library (GL) is under a fast evolving development. The content management constitutes a great challenge for the deliverance of the digital collections because as its is pointed out:

“Digitisation has created a new market triggering the demand for electronic products and
services and one of the most striking effects of such a process is that this has increased the demand for content” (De Laurentis, 2006)

The questions are many to keep in mind and will even rise as new technologies emerge.

“ The use of digital technology today raises questions that are situated at the convergence of the arts, technologies, and socio-cultural memory preserving Institutions ( museums and libraries) challenging traditional notions of how cultural heritage can and should be represented, interpreted and disseminated” ( Kalay, 2007, p.3 )

In today`s society both Museums and libraries are considered as centers for public learning ( Falk 1992,13) and educational programs are now common practice in most Museums.( see footnote 1).

Virtual heritage environments (VHE) where user interactivity is introduced for learning purposes provide us with “a fashionable synergy between research inquiry, technology, art, and everyday life” Kalay, 2007, ). The field is new and the possibilities remain yet to be investigated.

The MUBIL project proposes here the creation of such a VHE, as an interdisciplinary cooperation betweenthe archives of the Gunnerus library (GL) of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Perco a digital Laboratory of the Scuola Superiore of Santa Anna in Pisa, specialized in 3D applications for museums and libraries. The project will use the digitized content of the GL in 3D environment where visitors will be able to interact with the collections in a combined physical and a virtual environment. When the users enter such an environment they engage actively in performing, knowledge quest tasks and can thus modify their experience towards their own interest. Uzell`s (1994) theoretical approach to interpretation provides us with the argument that we cannot simply “impose an explanation of an object or an aspect of our heritage to our visitor and expect a consistent response…as each visitor will have their own perception according to individual levels of pre-understanding”. That is the visitors background, nationality and identity may influence and vary the outcome
of the experience is to be expected.
Our research will concentrate, then, on the potential of such an interaction between the user and the representation of a heritage collection in a virtual environment. We believe that this inquiry will, in a small way, add a new dimension to the way collections are experienced by the visitors.

Footnote 1:

Chicago history Museum: "http://museumeducation.info" \t "_blank" http://museumeducation.info
Paul Getty Museum: "http://www.getty.edu/education/" \t "_blank" http://www.getty.edu/education/.
Goulandri Museum of Cycladic Art http://www.cycladic.gr/frontoffice/portal" \t "_blank" http://www.cycladic.gr/frontoffice/portal, in Athens
London Science Museum: "http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/educators.aspx" \t "_blank" http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/educators.aspx :last visited 30.11.2010).
The age of empires( HYPERLINK "http://www.ageofempires3.com/last" \t "_blank" http://www.ageofempires3.com/last visited 1.12.10).

References

ABM 2010: http://www.abm-utvikling.no, last visited 30.11.2010
Barret, J., 2010: Museums and the Public Sphere
Dilevko, J., Gottlieb, L., 2004: The evolution of library and museum partnerships:
historical antecedents, contemporary manifestations, and future directions, Libraries unlimited.
Derrida,J., :1995, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, trans. Eric Prenowitz, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Carbonell, B. M., 2004: Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, Willey-Blackwell.
Foucault,M., 1972: The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (New York: Pantheon Books.)
De Laurentis, C. C. L., 2006: Digital Knowledge Exploitation: ICT, Memory Institutions and Innovation from Cultural Assets. Journal of Technology Transfer, 31, 77 f. f.
Falk, J. H., 1992: The Museum Experience, Redwood Books.
Falk, J. H., 2009: Identity and the museum visitor experience. Walnut Creek, Calif. Lee, C. A., 2007: Taking Context Seriously: A Framework for Contextual Information in Digital Collections. UNC SILS Technical Report 2007-04.
Hall, T., Ciolfi, L., Ferris, K., Bannon, L., Gallagher, P. and N. Hickey, 2003: "The Second Living Exhibition of the SHAPE project: supporting innovative exploration of artefacts with novel learning technology in the museum", Proceedings of EdTech2003: The Fourth Annual Irish Educational Technology Users, Waterford (Ireland), May 2003.
Hedstrom, M., 2002: Archives, memory, and interfaces with the past. Archival Science, 2, 21 f.
Kalay, J, Kvan, T., Affleck, J., 2007, New Heritage New Media and Cultural Heritage, Routledge.
Maxwell, J. A., 2008: The value of a realist understanding of causality for qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & M. D. Giardina (Eds.), Qualitative inquiry and the politics of evidence (pp. 163-181). WalnutCreek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Lee, C.A., 2007: Taking Context Seriously: A framework for Contextual Information on Digital Collections. UNC SILS Technical Report 2007-04.Ollick, K,J., and Robbins, J.,1998: Social Memory Studies: From "Collective Memory" to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 24 (1998), pp. 105-140,Annual Reviews.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/223476,Accessed: 30/03/2010 06
Ray, J., 2004: Connecting people and resources: digital programs at the institute of museum and digital services, Library Hi Tech; 2004; 22, 3; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 249
Rockhart, J.F., 1979: Chief executives define their own data needs. Harvard Business Review 57,no. 2: 238,41.
Soysal, Y. N., 2002: European Societies, . Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group,Volume 4, Number 3, 1 September 2002, pp. 265-284(220) ff.
Sadler, D.R., 1989: Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems, Instructional Science 18:119-144, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Dordrecht.
VAM 2010: http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/young_people/competitions/ index.html" \t "_blank" http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/young_people/competitions/ index.html last visited 06.07.10
Velody,I., 1998: “The Archive and the Human Sciences: Notes Towards a Theory of the Archive,” History of the Human Sciences 11, 4.
Zorloni Alessia, 2010: Managing performance indicators in visual art museums, Museum Management and Curatorship http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t770943820, Visited 9.july 2010

An alchemist of the past in 3D

2011-12-08T02:45:00.000-08:00

Mubil: a digital laboratory. A project of two years, financed by NTNU University Library and the National Library of Norway. The Mubil laboratory was established in june 2011 as an interdisciplinary cooperation between the NTNU University library,with Alexandra Angeletaki as the project manager,in collaboration with Letizia Jaccheri professor at the Department of Computer Science of the NTNU University and Chiara Evangelista from the Percro laboratory of the University of Santa Anna in Pisa Italy and started in october 2011 with the development of a pilot application.

The first story to be told:

Adam, an alchemist of the past

Texts: Jorgen Brekke

Drawings: Irene Dominguez

Digitalization: Ingunn Østgaard

Technical collaborators: Eva Sauvage, Ove Wolden

Photos: Nils Kristian Eikeland

Technical design: Chiara Evangelista

Inspired by the exhibition in Suhmhuset,

May 2011: Alkemi, Kjemiens røtter

Texts by Stein Johansen and Rolv Jakobsen

By Mubil project, Project manager: Alexandra Angeletaki /NTNU Univeristy Library

If you want to read more about handmade illustrations in books of that period read” Old handwriting” by Monica Aasen.

Relevant links: Robert Boyle

Mubil- Work in progress, December 2011

2011-12-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

Mubil will use 3D technology to disseminate knowledge about the past, through texts of books from the 1600s. The project work starts with the “Alchemy narrative” on Adam Lonitzer ( 1528-1586) a doctor from Frankfurt-Main. Jorgen Brekke who is a writer will create the story and Irene Dominguez who is a painter and Illustrator will do the drawings.

Work to be done: The Gunnerus library team will provide with the texts and the illustrations. The structure of the narrative will be decided together with Percro and the videos and applications will be composed by Chiara and Marcello along the way

Percro will start in January with the modeling of MUbil and provide the library with a simple demo in May/June containing two stories. During the subsequent years as defined by the contract, Percro will enrich the application. The delivery of the final product to NTNU will include also the source code of the applications developed in the framework of the MUBIL project with XVR as the development framework and Microsoft Windows as the OS platform.

The research frame of the project is defined in cooperation with Pr. Letizia Jaccheri from NTNU, IDI in Arte project.
Project manager: Alexandra Angeletaki /NTNU Univeristy Library

Mubil start

2011-11-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

Mubil has officially started with the final contract being in place, inspiration flying and work plans designed. The frame for this is the town of Pisa in Italy, at the laboratory of Percro where being a guest is a high privillege with human contact, warm hospitality, the strong sun light, good food and hard work being the unmistaken inspiration source for creative exchange.

Statement of Work

The MUBIL project is initiated by the NTNU University library and it will investigate the possibilities of creating a virtual learning space within the physical space of the library through an international collaboration with Percro laboratory and IDI at NTNU. The project will create an application of augmented books for the users of the library collections and an interactive laboratory for school students using 3D technology. The applications developed by Percro, in the framework of the MUBIL project will use XVR technology as the development framework and Microsoft Windows as the OS platform. Application data as agreed will consist of 3D models, images,videos,texts (likely in XML format). The final product will be in both English and Norwegian. The project is mainly financed by the NTNU in a joint cooperation between the University library and the IDI department. The project is also a response to the call of the National Library of Norway on projects that stimulate development of new digital dissemination strategies for libraries and is thus partly financed with NOK 460000 by the National Library. The rest is financed by NTNU and Percro as a research collaboration.

3D technology applications

2011-11-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

The project in short: Mubil, a digital laboratory is financed by Ntnu university library, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the National Library of Norway. The Mubil laboratory was established in june 2011 as an interdisciplinary cooperation between the NTNU University library, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, with Letizia Jaccheri professor at the department of computer science of the NTNU University and Chiara Evangelista from the Percro laboratory of the University of Santa Anna in Pisa Italy and is starting now in october 2011 with the development of a pilot application.

Picture by Åge Højem

Backround: Museums and libraries as memory institutions have always drawn people to them and have been providing the communities they serve with a space of educational opportunities of an informal value connected to them.

The Gunnerus library is the oldest scientific library of norway, established in 1768 by the norwegian royal society of science in trondheim. the society was particularly active in collecting books, manuscripts and archaeological and natural history material from around the world and established an institutional organization that allowed all its partners that is the museum, the library and the society secretariat to have a decisive impact on the institutionalization of cultural memory in norway.

The Gunnerus branch (GL) of the NTNU university library has recently agreed with the NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology in Trondheim (VM) and the Science Centre (Vitensenteret) to cooperate in establishing a new centre called the Kalvskinnet Science Centre in the area of Trondheim, known as Kalvskinnet, where the library and the museums are situated today. The actual merging of the institutions is far more than a joint cooperation.

Research field: The project falls in the field of virtual heritage research with a trans-disciplinary character involving museology, archive research science, communication and pedagogy. Memory institutions as a developing digital learning arena can play a key role in the development of identity of the new generations and their understanding of history.Museum exhibitions are often designed in order to answer the questions of the visitor and create a cultural experience that stimulates curiosity. Archives are often organized in order to meet the needs of researchers and historians and try to constantly create interest and increase accessibility to their material. The technological advancement of our times though poses a new challenge into the traditional way of exhibiting and provide to the public the stories of the past.

Thus Mubil will try to investigate through an interdisciplinary cooperation with its partners the impact digital technology can have as a learning space for children or yound adults within the physical space of museum and library institutions.

The mubil project proposes here the creation of a virtual heritage environment (vhe) where user interactivity is introduced for learning purposes , as an interdisciplinary cooperation between the archives of the Gunnerus library (gl) of the Norwegian university of science and technology and Perco a robotics laboratory of the Scuola Superiore of Santa Anna in Pisa, specialized in 3d applications for museums and libraries. The project will use the digitized content of the gl in 3d environment where visitors will be able to interact with the collections in a combined physical and virtual environment.

Can immersive reality applications change the visitor experience in museums, cultural sites and libraries? Will we be able to travel to places without physically being there and how will such experience be exploited in the future?

Mubil hopes to go further than 3d recontructions where the user remains a passive viewer. It aims to find ways in creating an active participation in immersive environments and stimulate knowledge seeking dissemination of its collections through a perception-action interaction procedure.The information collected through the interaction with the users will be analysed in order to create a laboratory application by the NTNU university library and promote its special archives. The final scope is that a working laboratory will be created in a hybrid environment (physical and immersive) and the experiment has a clear educational objective, that is to test the learning outcome of the users. The application will also be accessible through the internet.

Two IDI students will be invited to participate as experts under the supervision of pr. Letizia Jaccheri More about that in Arte

Other interesting 3D applications: Immersive experience in a Giza pyramid

NTNU digital library

2011-10-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

Mubil project supported by the National library of Norway

2011-10-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

Mubil, a digital laboratory is financed by NTNU university library, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the National Library of Norway. The project will experiment by creating a hybrid exhibition space allowing the visitors to interact with archive documents without touching the authentic physical objects. The visitor is allowed to experiment with a 3D digital copy through an augmented board in an immersive virtual environment. The Mubil laboratory was established in June 2011 as an interdisciplinary cooperation between the NTNU University library the Norwegian University of Science and technology, with Letizia Jaccheri professor at the department of Computer Science of the NTNU university and Chiara Evangelista from the Percro laboratory of the University of Santa Anna in Pisa, Italy. Starting in October 2011 the project MUBIL will create a pilot and the information collected through the interaction with the users will be analysed in order to create a laboratory application by the NTNU university library and promote its special archives. We hope to go further than 3D recontructions where the user remains a passive viewer. We aim to find ways in creating an active participation in an immersive environment that stimulates knowledge seeking through a perception-action interaction procedure. A working laboratory will be created in a hybrid environment (physical and immersive) and the experiment has a clear educational objective. That is to test the learning outcome of the users. The application will also be accessible through the Internet.

Alexandra Angeletaki
Research Librarian at Gunnerus Library, University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

Collaborators:
Chiara Evangelista, computational engineer, Percro, Scuola Santa Anna, Pisa, Italy
Letizia Jaccherri, Professor of Computer Science, NTNU, Trondheim Norway

Seminar on game playing and learning.

2011-07-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

The Gunnerus library is organising a seminar on game playing and learning in a mixed reality game for an Art Museum. Exploring the effects of mixed reality game to learning and Museum experience.

with Konstantinos Chorianopoulos

lecturer and Marie Curie Fellow

Department of Informatics at the Ionian University, Corfu, Greece.

17th of August at the Gunnerus library

at 14.00

read more here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/549350/paper/museum-game-position.pdf

Dr. Konstantinos Chorianopoulos's stay in
Trondheim is in the context of the Fabula (http://www.fabula.idi.ntnu.no/ )
and ArTe (www.artentnu.com) project

registration by email to alexandra.angeletaki@ub.ntnu.no

Workshop in Trondheim, May 2011

2011-04-19T04:34:00.000-07:00

The University Library of Trondheim is extending an invitation to a cross-disciplinary workshop in Trondheim 12- 13 May 2011, at Suhmhuset

Nature as book and image –scientific communication and exchange in 18th century Europe.

The workshop will explore central issues on the “long” 18th century history of science. Its four sessions focus on: 1) scientific networks, 2) the significance of illustrations and images in scientific communication and development, 3) Liber naturae, theology and the investigation of nature, and 4) the relationship between body and soul in 18th century philosophy and science. The workshop begins with a lecture “Laboratory enlightenment” and investigates these four topics in the following two days. The workshop commemorates the 250th anniversary of the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters:http://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/
For further information and registration, please contact: rolv.n.jakobsen@ub.ntnu.no
The conference language will be English.
Workshop fee: NOK 500
Workshop fee including conference dinner: NOK 1000

Organizers:

The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences Letters,

Norwegian University of Science and Technology(NTNU)

Faculty of Humanities NTNU

NTNU University Library

Programme

Thursday 12 May: 09.30-10.30: Registration and coffee (Suhmhuset)

10.30-10.45: Welcome
Dr Kristian Overskaug, general secretary of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
Gertrude Marsh, member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
Dr Rolv Nøtvik Jakobsen NTNU university.

10.45-12.00: Opening lecture: Laboratory Enlightenment: Concepts of rationality before 1800 and today by Professor Olaf Breidbach. Discussion

12.00-13.00: Lunch

13.00-14.30: Session 1: Wine and Cheese, Flowers and Prayers: Secular objects in religious communication networks of the early Enlightenment by Professor Alexander Schunka (response by Associate Professor Brita Brenna, University of Oslo)

14.30-15.00: Coffe break.

15.00-16.30: Session 2: Images and illustrations in scientific development during the 17th and 18th centuries by Dr Stein Johansen, with comments by Professor Olaf Breidbach.

18.00-18.30: Short guided tour through 18th century Trondheim ending up at the Cathedral of Nidaros.

18.30-19.30: Nidaros Cathedral: A short guided tour and organ concert with the baroque Wagner organ

20.00: Conference dinner

Friday 13 May

09.00-10.30: Session 3: Liber Naturae as books and natural objects by Dr Rolv Nøtvik Jakobsen,. Discussion

10.30-11.00: Coffee break

11.00-12.30: Gunnerus and the question of the soul in 18th-century by Professor Friedemann Stengel, IZEA

12.30-13.30: Lunch

13.30-15.00: Panel discussion: Enlightenment – between science and religion in German and Nordic contexts. Short introduction and plenary discussion on further cooperation plans.

-

"Realm of Grace"

2011-02-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Can a library provide inspiration? Yes it can ..that is, in the hands of a gifted writer that can disseminate knowledge of history, philosophy and anatomy through fiction in an amazingly complicated plot of parallel historiacal realities. Padova, Venetia and Trondheim in 1500 when anatomy, a controversial science was reborn and flourished allows the writer Jorgen Brekke to study known and unknown characters through time and give a diachronic perspective to crime and the complexity of the way human mind functions.A historical novel that carries a lot of valid information but through the eloquence of fiction allows people to be surprised of a plot that is totally unexpected and excitingly described all the way. The crime takes place in Gunnerus library and its connected to a the Knudzon collection that is now kept in the heart of the library the "knudzonssalen". A book that is already bought by 6 other countries and could definately become a film with big success.

Read more about it

"In 1528, a young Franciscan monk pays a visit to Bergen. He leaves the town with an extensive collection of knives and untreated hides. Almost five hundred years later, a flayed body is found at a museum in Richmond, Virginia, and another body in a book vault in Trondheim, Norway. Both cases appear to be linked to The Book of John, an old and cryptic text written on parchment.
This first novel about the American murder detective, Felicia Stone, and the Norwegian police inspector, Odd Singsaker, who is recovering from cancer is a story of dissection, ancient books, gruesome murders and wounds that only time can heal.

2010-10-24T04:01:00.000-07:00

Last friday Gunnerus library invited to a seminar about dissemination strategies.
Many interesting questions were taken up and a discussion started between researchers, the library and the Museum of Natural science and Archeology at Kalvskinnet, Trondeim.

The reason of organizing this seminar is the fact that a new partnership is to be established. The Museum of Natural science, the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology and Gunnerus library is about to merge into a institution debating its new identity through the state budget.

Ideally speaking the center will be seeking contact with its potential public through an active and interactive character which calls upon a reinterpretation of its collections.

So how can we create the possibility to reach new social groups?

The physical collections remain important because they appeal to people, they contain science data, and by arranging them in different order through both exhibitions or educational programs they create experience and enhance Knowledge.

The Digital collections might also allow people to learn about the physical objects and experience or use them in a digital context?
But how do we experience knowledge today?

An example comes from the travel kit Christofer Hammer from the 1750`s with the tea warmer, his note book and the ink illustrates the idea of aristocrats seeking knowledge in their travels, collecting objects and books, organising their material in order for the next generations to be able to find it and learn about it. His travelling kit, his manuscripts, maps, books, belong today to the collections of the Gunnerus library and have been used to fill in the Exhibition of 1760 that we see today at the NTNU Museum of Science and Archaeology.
In the case of a exhibition, we have objects in combinations that try to reconstruct the atmosphere and the time they belong to. They reconstruct the past. What has been interesting here is that when the library and the museum work together as in the case of that exhibition where objects are moved from the storage rooms after being cleaned and mended in order to be presented to the public their message and function changes. Books are thus moved from their bookshelves and are set in a new context that alludes to the importance they carry! They move from the function of being read to become an object to be looked at.The oldest and the rarest the more interesting. They strengthen thus the presentation of the physical objects and become a part of the visitors experience!
In addition to the physical exhibition though one has the digital applications that complement the experience and provide the visitors with the possibility to learn and play through touch screens, computer games, blogs and interact with the information connected to these objects in a digital way.
A digitalization process though is on its way both at the museum and the library
The transformation of the physical objects to digital or 3d objects brings in our times through technology a new dimension to experiencing knowledge and thus the possibilities and the challenges of such a combined dissemination policy was discussed through the Museum-library partnership.

Alexandra Angeletaki

A short summary of the presentations follows here:

Chiara Evangelista from Percro presented 3D tools that have been used in Museums and Libraries in order to create digital landscapes that are interactive and immersive. The visitor finds himself in a 3D landscape learning about the objects or the books he chooses and going through all kinds of content according to his interest. Children that have been participating in creating this kind of landscapes. The Percro laboratory is open to all cooperation or project applications and has been working many years with EC projects.
The links of the videos will be soon presnted here.

Pr. Letizia Jaccheri from IDI/ NTNU presented the ArTe research project which finds itself at in the intersection between software technology and digital art. It focuses on creativity, cooperation, and openness of processes and content. ArTe focuses on contemporary open software technology for digital art. The concrete context encompasses “Make” events centered on technology such as Arduino, processing, and scratch, and has been organizing different events linked to art festivals and dissemination events for young and senior audience. Read the presentation here

Håkon Fyhn talked about his comic figure Sniff the rat and the process of interdisciplinary cooperation. He worked together with scientists from the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, computer game developers, museum administrators and himself as an anthropologist and comic-writer. He argued that most forms of dissemination face the challenges and possible benefits of interdisciplinary work. He discussed the challenges connected to the process of the creation of Sniff the Rat from vague idea to solid product that can serve as example of dissemination.

Guro Jørgensen a phd researcher presented different projects organized by the NTNU Museum that have had focus on the Digital Dialogue between the Museum and it‘s Public. The NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology has recently started the exploration of how web 2.0 technologies can be used in new ways of communicating with its visitors. Children have participated in different educational activities and produced science blogs. Other blog activities will soon be launched and the possibilities and perhaps the limitations around these methods are still to be discussed further on.

Axel Christofersen director of the NTNU Museum that gained the prize of the best Norwegian Museum 2010 presented together with Morten Stephensen who is the director of the Dissemination Department of the NTNU Museum the challenges connected to forming a renewal plan for the - NTNU University Museum so that its position is appreciated and understand by the rest of the University and the peoples community as a museum that enhances research and knowledge. The museum tries to meet the community of the town of Trondheim in various ways. The process takes long and the possibility of cooperation with other Institutions as the library and the Science Museum looks promising.

Then the 25 participants visited the Gunnerus library where they had the possibility to see some of the best books the Gunnerus library owns and watched a "performance" where a latin Hymn was presented. Stein Johansen and Rolv Jakobsen introduced the physical object, its digital copy and the sound that was sang by the coir of Sancta Sunniva from Trondheim. made the misale, LUX ILUCIT which comes from a private collection of the 19th century come alive. The book is kept today at the Gunnerus library. The presentation was filmed by students of the Ringve High School and will be soon presented on you tube.
The performance was suplemnted by an exhibition on bookbinding outside the Knudzon room prepared by, Victoria Juhlin, Ingunn Ødegaard and Eva Sauvage.

Photos Arfinn Røkne, Chiara Evangelista, Åge Høyem.
laypout of the seminar invitation: Eva Sauvage

A research seminar at Suhmhuset

2010-09-06T04:52:00.000-07:00

The new Knowledge Centre at Kalvskinnet: Three Institutions at Trondheim (The Gunnerus Branch of the NTNU University library, the NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology in Trondheim (VM) and the Science Centre (Vitensenter)) have recently agreed to cooperate in establishing a new centre called the Knowledge Centre in the area of Trondheim, known as Kalvskinnet.

The Gunnerus library is thus extending invitations to a research seminar about:

“The Knowledge Centre at Kalvskinnet”,

Disseminating the past into the future!

22^nd of October

9.30-16.00

At the Suhmhuset

This cooperative project represents a new concept, a Science Centre-Museum-Library entity (with technology, science, archaeology and history as its main profile pillars), indicating a change in thinking and creating a need for farsighted planning.

One of the common purposes to be discussed is the potential to engage the interest of new social groups through different dissemination strategies and to be able to reflect on the diversity in age, interests and nationality of the user community.

The main questions the seminar will attend to discuss are:

· How can the centre increase its accessibility and engage the interest of new groups?

· How to best organise and coordinate the dissemination activities for the benefit of their prospective audience?

The seminar is financed by the globalization programme of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, (NTNU) in Trondheim as part of the research project “The role of libraries in the European future” organised by the Gunnerus library.

We invite all that might be interested in attending to send an email to Alexandra Angeletaki alexandra.angeletaki@ub.ntnu.no before the 10^th October 2010.

Programme: 09.30-16.00

9.30 Welcome by the library director: Lisbeth Tangen

9.45 - 10.00: Alexandra Angeletaki, Gunnerus library, Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Disseminating the past into the future.

10.00-10.45: Chiara Evangelista, Perpertual Robotics Laboratory (Percro), Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy: Information Landscape Project: New possibilities for user interaction in 3D Virtual Environments.

10.45-11.15: Letizia Jaccheri, Department of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology: ArTe – Art and Technology - Research and Dissemination activities at the intersection of Art and Technology

11.15-11.45: Håkon Fyhn, antropolog: Sniff the Rat: Dissemination as a process of

interdisciplinary creation.

11.45-12.15 Discussion

12.15-13.00 Lunch

13.00- 14.15: Library-visit with Stein Johansen, Ellen Alm and Rolv Jakobsen, NTNU library; Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Digital representation of objects from a 19th century private library, Knudzonsalen - the question of context.

14.30-15.00: Guro Jørgensen, Phd candidate at the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Digital Dialogue between the Museum and it‘s Public

15.00-15.30: Axel Christofersen and Morten Steffensen, The Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Challenge and Renewal - NTNU University Museum. Trondheim meets the community.

15.30-16.00: Discussion

Learn more about the history of Books in Gunnerus library!

2010-07-19T00:57:00.000-07:00

Bookbinding in Trondheim:
Books are also artecrafts, and their history is connected to bookbinding.
In Trondheim library we are still running a bookbinding laboratory in 2010.
A Paper conservator is also working at our library with the rare books (LibriRari) and manuscripts that need reparation or conservation, protecting and preserving the texts which they contain. Some of that material is being digitized and is now available for reading through Bibsys and the websites of the library.

More about old books:

OLD HANDWRITING: some examples by Monica Aase

Paper first came into use in Norway at the end of the 15th century. In the early Middle Ages men wrote on parchment, i.e. finely treated skin from a calf, kid, or other animal. Parchment was very expensive and even small pieces were made use of. Also, many abbreviations were used, which those able to read did not have problems understanding then, though which today’s readers have to spend some time on. For example, if the letter ‘m’ had a line above it, it indicated a double letter, ‘mm’. Information on measures, weights and other matters were also abbreviated so that the text could be reduced to a minimum. In some examples the skin has holes – perhaps caused by an insect at the time when the animal, from which the parchment was made from, was alive – and in such cases the writing was often carefully done around the hole. Read more here

New book

2010-06-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Grønår and Skinår. Weather History for Trøndelag through 1000 years
Edition: 1 Edition
Published: 2010
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 92
ISBN: 9788251926133

by Stein Johansen (ed.)

Tapir academic editions, Trondheim Norway

Re-publication by Gerhard Schøning (1761) and Ole Nordgaard (1920) with introduction by Stein Johansen.

Weather and weather observations are concerned with people at all times. In this book provided some historical perspectives and understandings of the contemporary debate about man-made global warming and natural climate variations. The book also shows how weather and climate in Norway is closely linked to global events and variations.

This is a combined reissue of Gerhard Schöning publication in 1761 of "famine and Misvæxt in Trondheim`s Staple" and Ole Nordgård article from 1920 about the "age of Fighters in Norway". This is an important collection of historical stories about the weather and climate through 1000 years available. The long period covered, the cycles and patterns in climate and consequences for nature, people and society. Variations in weather and climate provides a basis for the civilization and culture development and prosperity but also uncertainty, war, poverty and migration. And behind the bare facts about good and fruitful year with warm summers and mild winters, about extreme weather and crop failures of hunger and disease, we recognize people's hopes and disorders related to changing living conditions.

Gerhard Schöning and Ole Nordgård accounts even though coming from the past contribute to discussions today about weather and climate change.

Schøning donated his library to the Royal society of Trondheim and it consisted of 12,000 volumes. His collection is kept today at the Gunnerus library and it includes 154 volumes of Disertatiae from different universities around Europe. The thick volumes by up to 60 papers in each volume, and approx. 4000 dissertiae in all. These are now cataloged in BIBSYS special code dissertas. There is also an index to the collection (manuscript in folio 188), where the material is arranged by subject.

Upcoming events

The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, is organizing a conference on Climate change and security in Trondheim 21st of June ( see more here ) on the occasion of its 250th anniversary.

references: Tapir book catalog,http://butikk.tapirforlag.no/no/search/node/Stein+Johansen, and
Monica Aase at http://www.dknvsjubileum2010.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=126visited 19.06.2010

Our contribution to the celebration of DKNVS.

2010-03-11T07:25:00.000-08:00

Special Collections at Gunnerus Library has been involved in various anniversary events that will take place in Trondheim during the celebration of The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS) 250 year anniversary. Special Collections has supplied digital materials to DKNVS anniversary website. Read the program here

On Tuesday the 9th of March, an exhibition including special collections materials was opened at the Masonic Lodge, in conjunction with the concert "A Tribute to Johan Daniel Berlin". Then on Friday 12 March His Magesty the King of Norway will be opening the anniversary exhibition of the VM the Natural History and Archaeology Museum of Trondheim.

In this exhibition special collections has contributed with substantial amounts of valuable material: several original books, maps and manuscripts, digital manuscript / maps / books, celestial globe (1600 - t), telescope (1700 - t), Napoleon Clock (1800 h), mature paintings, portraits, and much much more. In addition, a beautiful film about the special collections of the Gunnerus library was produced by the library`s personel and will be running on a big screen of the exhibition by tomorrow.

Saturday 13th of March at the concert Hall of the town of Trondheim during in DKNVS gala performance Gry Molvaer (Schrödinger cat) will review and show off one of Gunnerusbibiotekets rare treasures, Newton's "Principe" in Olavshallen.

In the next month during the NTH-Anniversary celebration of our University, our collections are presenting in collaboration with NTNU one of our most valuable private archives of a great mathematician of our times, the NTNU Onsager-archive. More info on that is yet to come. later.

Regards Ellen Alm, head of special collections

Upcoming events-march 2010

2010-03-09T03:50:00.000-08:00

The new Knowledge center: The NTNU library, the Gunnerus branch, has recently signed an agreement with the Museum of Natural history and Archaeology in Trondheim and the Science center to cooperate in establishing a Knowledge center at the area where the library and the Museum is situated today at Kalvskinnet, Trondheim.

This project of cooperation indicates a transition period or a paradigm shift for the new role of the Library as a public institute debating its new identity through the state budget of the Norwegian government. The new centre will be seeking contact with its public through an active and interactive character which calls upon a reinterpretation of its collections.

The library has thus initiated a program of digitization of its most valuable books, manuscripts, and archives and is developing a strategy of web communication that integrates multilingual and transnational interoperability on a platform that allows the library to define its new role as a contributor to the informational and educational needs of the new Knowledge centre. The same applies for the Museum that has already started to digitize its material as to enhance access of a wider public of researchers and visitors.

The 12th of March the Society celebrates its 250 years

KNOWLEDGE ALARM 2010

A city on the edge of the world. A ship full of animals. Dusty curiosities. Super-advanced brain research. Cities of the future. The moorings creak. A bishop long dead. Your most distant ancestors. A giant octopus.

Organisms on glass. A shipwreck. The Tree of Life. A watch tower. Chests with Viking swords. Family gatherings. Someone jumping into the water. A brain cell. Renewable energy. Fossils. A double helix.
A university. A scientific society. Dubious experiments. Forgotten books. Scientific discoveries. Datings. Telescopes and water pipes. A human being without skin.
A museum. A time travel. An exhibition.
Knowledge Alarm 2010.

About our collections:

2008-08-29T01:33:00.001-07:00

The Gunnerus Library and its cultural heritage collections are going back to the 1760s when the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters began collecting natural history material and also material pertaining to cultural history. Our collections of pictures and historical documents can be surveyed here. You can order a copy by sending us an email.