Looking through a lens preserving and presenting the past through digitisation is a project at Kendal museum funded by a heritage lottery fund grant, to spend two years digitising the mineral and herbarium collections.
As the collections assistant intern I will be assisting the digital imaging scientist to digitise artefacts and improve the storage and documentation of the collections as well as working with the museum team to assist in delivering a programme of events and activities relating to collections.
Digitisation is becoming increasing important way of preserving collections that are too fragile to be on display to the public. Making images available online makes the collections accessible for a wider audience so they can be used for research and education purposes.
The end goal of the project is to have extensive preservation images of the mineral and herbarium collections which can be used by future generations. The images will be made available on a specially designed website as well as a touring exhibition to engage a wide audience with their local heritage.