GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - The Graaff-Reinet Museum was proud to host a delegation from Germany last week, sharing their expertise with museums in the area.
In 2014 Anziske Kayster, head of the Graaff-Reinet Museum, was part of a delegation that investigated a twinning agreement between the museums of the Eastern Cape and the museums of Lower Saxony in Germany.
The aim of the agreement is to share knowledge, skills and experience. In 2015 the first group of German delegates came to South Africa, and the following year a group from the Eastern Cape visited Lower Saxony, sharing the valuable information and experience they had gained on their return.
On 21 January Martin Schmidt, the head of collection at the Landesmuseum in Hannover, Germany, and his colleague Sonja Nolte who administers the collection database at this museum, gave a talk at the Graaff-Reinet Museum for representatives from Somerset East Museum, Middelburg Museum and Cradock's Great Fish River Museum.
The focus of the training was the digitisation of museum collections.
The Graaff-Reinet Museum is one of a small contingent of museums in South Africa that decided to follow the digitisation route in 2017, when Prof Johannes Haarhoff began digitising the photographic collection.
Since then, he has digitised more than 4 000 photographs and also developed a database that will eventually be uploaded to a digital international archive. This will allow access to the archival collection from all over the world and also ensure the conservation of archival material and artifacts in the museum collection.
Martin Schmidt and Sonja Nolte from the Landesmuseum in Hannover, Germany.
During the workshop, the Germans shared basic information regarding the initial phase of digitisation and provided advice for the future. In most cases digitising of museum collections is hampered by a lack of funding.
"We hope that the German delegation will be able to convince the powers that be that funding for digitisation projects is needed and should be prioritised," said Kayster.\
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