University Collections and Cultural Heritage - Inventory of the Heritage of the University of Strasbourg

Since 2004, the University of Strasbourg has carried out an inventory of collections of scientific instruments. This process, initiated with a national study of the astronomical heritage, is locally enabled thanks to a partnership between the University of Strasbourg and the Regional Department for Heritage Inventory and allows a better understanding of academic collections. Using the method of the General Inventory, successfully adapted to scientific instrumentation, this work has been carried out institute after institute and has gathered documentation accessible to all via the Internet. Thanks to a close collaboration between cultural heritage professionals and members of the scientific community, the collection of these data has led to a strengthening of links between the structures in charge of these collections and helped initiate a better physical preservation and management of instruments. This documentation is also regularly mobilized for different types of mediation activities: paper publications, museum or virtual exhibitions, but also for teaching purposes or in national events such as European Heritage Days.