The collections

Collection management

Collection management aims to look after the cultural heritage for future generations and includes all activities and measures that ensure that the collections are looked after, documented and made available to the general public. The collections must be available for use and dissemination in the museum, and for the general public in general for research and dissemination.

The museum's collections today consist of more than 90,000 objects, 2.65 million photographs, 140,000 books and periodicals and 1,700 shelf meters of archives. In 2023, there has been good progress in the ongoing collection work. 282 objects and 5,429 photographs have been registered in the museum's databases.

A total of 39 items, about 100 photographs and an archive in 2023 have been incorporated. During the year, the museum has disposed of a total of 493 objects. A remodeled T-Ford from 1923 was given to the Norwegian T-Ford club. The ownership of a steam locomotive from 1912, which the Norwegian Railway Club and the Krøderbanen have managed since 1973, were transferred to the Buskerud Museum and its department Krøderbanen. In 2023, the museum extracted its collection of objects at Tromsø broadcasts, and in this connection a larger number of telecommunications historical objects were disposed of, including objects given to the Gisund Coastal Team and the Perspective Museum in Tromsø.

DigitaltMuseum is the museum's most important publication channel for the collections, where registration data and photographs are published with as open rights as possible to provide the greatest possible use. By the end of 2023, 36,480 objects and 151,047 photographs will be available at DigitaltMuseum. Photographs from Oslo are also available on the website www.oslobilder.no . The museum's archive is published on Arkivportalen . The museum uses central shared services within collection management, such as the websites kulturnav.org, digitaltmuseum.no, oslobilder.no and the database Primus. The museum has permanent responsibility for two authority registers in KulturNAV. These are the personal register Persons Industrial History and the organizational register Industrial Companies. In addition, the museum, together with the Preusmuseet and Folkemuseet, has taken responsibility for following up the Photographers' Register.

COLLECTION WORK

In the spring of 2023, the gathering work at one of the museum's remote magazine has been in focus. The museum's conservators, photographers and object conservators have undergone objects exhibited in the previous energy exhibition at Kjelsås and relevant objects for the upcoming new exhibition Energy in the Climate Crisis, intake from the last few years and the medical collections. The work has helped to make items available as a gas pump from British Petroleum and a vision test from the Eye Department at the National Hospital, to name a few. A total of 569 objects have been magazine. This amounts to about 20 pallet seats. 12 large paintings by Jens Wang are magazine in the painting magazine.

The museum has around 20 models from the Bergseminaret at Kongsberg in its collection. There are models of mine shafts, steam engines, water wheels, crushing plants etc. that were used in teaching at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The museum has started further research into the models and their history, with a view to being able to show some of them in a new exhibition about models which will open in the autumn of 2024.

Digitization of DEXTRA Photo

DEXTRA Photo has reached a milestone in 2023, with 100,000 photographs available at DigitaltMuseum. In addition to digitisation, all the photographs have been entered into the archive system Asta and catalogs of the most important part of the material have largely been finalised. With the help of time-saving methods and support from the National Library's digitization service, the focus has been on volume in 2023. 38,094 images have been published during the year. 4390 images have been downloaded free of charge in good quality.

For fifteen years, the Dextra project has primarily been about digitizing and making the collection available. Effective work paths are in good operation both internally at the museum and in collaboration with the National Library, and a representative selection from the collections is available at DigitaltMuseum. The project is now moving into a new phase. In the spring of 2023, Sparebankstiftelsen DNB awarded the museum funds for two projects based on DEXTRA Photo, Registration Track and Photographic Conversations.

The registration track aims to find the best existing tools in handwriting recognition, artificial intelligence and simple automations to handle the ever-increasing amounts of images being digitized, so that they are useful both to the general public and to students and researchers. The aim is to create a pragmatic handbook that photo archivists at other institutions can also benefit from. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Preus museum and the Museums in Akershus.

Photographic conversations aim to develop a traveling exhibition of photographs from a cornerstone company, with the hope that local, historical images will be able to spur a conversation between the generations. A successful project will be able to act as a template for further exhibitions in other locations.

DEXTRA Photo is owned by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB and is deposited at the museum.

the painting magazine

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology applied to the Norwegian Archives for development funds in the field of archives in 2022. The museum was granted a grant of NOK 445,000 for 2023 for the project Alf Bjercke's archive - functional colours and varnish factory. The support was to be used to register, digitize and publish the archive of Alf Bjercke's colour trade.

Alf Bjercke's paint shop was founded in 1880. The factory produced painting oils and varnishes. Maler'n til Bjercke was one of the country's best-known brands. The company was taken over by Jotun in 1972, and the company's archive was given to the museum in 1979. It contains, among other things, correspondence, color charts, brochures, advertising material, newspaper clippings, lectures, customer lists and accounts.

In 2023, the archive has been arranged, repackaged and registered in ASTA. Selected color maps from the period 1930-1950 and other archival material have been digitized and much of this has been published on the Digital Archive. In 2024, the museum will publish a presentation of the archive on its own website. An innovation is that NCS color codes are linked to the original color maps.

The building of Tromsø broadcasts at Langnes

Tromsø broadcaster at Langnes was the last free transmitter that operated in Norway during the Second World War. Photo: Laila Andersen

teleconferences

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology is the central institution in Norway for collecting, managing and making available tangible and intangible cultural heritage within the telecommunications sector. Through the merger with the former Telemuseet, nearly 20,000 objects, approximately 480,000 photographs, 242 registered archives and a specialist library of approximately 6,400 volumes were acquired. Work on these telecommunications historical collections is central to the museum's collection management plan for the period 2022-2026.

The museum has a significant number of objects that are included in telehistorical collections and exhibitions around the country. Work is underway on a review of these collections and the regional activities. After the dissemination by Tromsø broadcasters ceased in 2020, the museum has retrieved its objects from there during the spring and autumn of 2023. Two large containers of objects were transported down from Tromsø, processed in the museum's heating chamber and taken to the museum's warehouses, while other objects were disposed of.

When merging with the Telemuseet in 2018 The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology took over two listed buildings on Rundemanen in Bergen; the Bergen Radio transmitting station and an associated machine house. In 2022, water and sewage were installed in the transmitter building, and people could once again be invited into the building. In collaboration with Museum Vest, Rundemanen was open to the public on 13 Sundays from June to September in 2023. There were 840 people who visited.

Lending and borrowing of museum objects

The museum lends objects and archives to exhibitions at museums and institutions at home and abroad. In 2023, the museum lent objects to several museums such as the Bærum Hospital Museum, the Preus Fotomuseum, the Oslo Museum and to a master's thesis in preservation at the University of Oslo. Some of the loans have included curriculum and assistance with assembly. The museum has also lent objects and art in connection with the exhibition Energy in the Climate Crisis. In total, the museum has about 65 active lending cases, and loans from 50 institutions and private individuals to several of our permanent and temporary exhibitions.

Photography

In 2023, the museum's photographer has in particular worked with photography and video work linked to the new energy exhibition, in the form of photographs of objects and images/video for content in the exhibition. Collection audit, images for external communication, exhibition documentation, photography of events and ongoing individual assignments from colleagues have also formed a significant part of the work.

The photographer has participated in the museum's collection work, by contemporary documentation of the emergency department for the medical museum and the Meteor factory for industrial history network collection.

Library

The library contains one of Norway's largest collections of technology and industrial history literature, in addition to an extensive collection of medical history, telecommunications and science history books. Registration of the medical book collection has continued in 2023. Approx. 40 shelf meters (hm) of books have so far been entered in ASTA and thus searchable in Oria. There remains approx. 300 hm. They are interspersed with periodicals, pamphlets, archives and individual objects. Work has begun to separate out the small print and register them in series in ASTA as part of the Rikshospitalet's archives. It will make up an estimated 30 of the remaining 300 hm, and is very time-saving.

In 2023, the library has been a one-month internship for a student from OsloMet in the field of library and information science. We have also taken in a person who needed work clarification, supported by SPIR and NAV.

Preservation

Preservation at the museum is linked to the exhibition, lending and collection management work. In 2023, the focus has been particularly on the museum's collections related to the area of energy in connection with the upcoming exhibition energy in the climate crisis time, the medical collections and gathering work on one of the museum's remote magazines. Preservation of objects to energy in the time of the climate crisis has taken place in the preservative workshop in the museum's temporary exhibition hall. It has enabled the public to follow the object work as the exhibition takes shape.

In 2023, the museum's equipment and professionals have been leased to other museums and cultural heritage managers.

Key figures for the collection work

Year	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
Number of items estimated	91 488	91 942	91 824	91 701	91 643	91 611
Reg items in Primus	75 261	74 986	74 224	77 385	76 906	76 611
Reg. items current year	282	762	291	479	295	27 051
Published items Digital Museum	36 480	35 903	35 367	35 045	34 548	33 767
Number of photographs (estimate)	2 674 550	2 674 450	2 674 450	2 674 450	2 653 000	2 650 000
Reg. photo in Primus	577 571	571 407	554 951	199 523	161 302	160 302
Reg. photo current year	6 164	16 456	23 712	38 221	1 000	57 648
Published photographs Digital Museum	151 047	112 953	96 497	82 803	67 608	67 116
Number of archives	507	506	489	482	480	478
Registered archives in Asta	348	323	306	408	405	391
Registered archives in the current year	25	17	6	3	14	366
Published archives on the archive portal	167	141	123	75	45	31