Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
Employees Scientific and educational center “Evolution of the Earth” Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, Novosibirsk State University are creating a database that will combine information about all samples located in open exhibits and storage facilities. The result of this work should be the creation of a website for all those interested in geology and mineralogy. Third-party visitors will be able to see exhibits of the Evolution of the Earth Scientific and Educational Center here, and professional geologists and NSU employees will be able to obtain information about samples from the faculty’s closed storage facilities. Work on creating the database and the website is being carried out with the support of the program “Priority 2030”The software product is being created by the Novosibirsk IT company Data East, which employs graduates of the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics of NSU.
— The domestic geoinformation platform CoGIS allows specialists to create websites from ready-made modules without resorting to the services of programmers. They design the database themselves, create object cards and thus document museum exhibits. Each object contains a description and multimedia information — photos, videos, presentations. The interface is so simple that it can be easily mastered by both a scientist and a schoolchild. We expect that the CoGIS platform for the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth” and for the university as a whole will become a universal environment for storing and processing scientific and practical information, useful for student term papers and diploma papers, industrial practices, as well as for the implementation of research programs of the university, — said Mikhail Zadorozhny, GIS specialist at Data East.
— At the moment, the database is only being created and functions only for internal use. We have digitized all the samples exhibited in the expositions of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth” — both inside its premises and in display cases located in the adjacent corridors. The samples that are in the faculty’s storage facilities have also been partially digitized. To date, the database contains information on more than three thousand samples. About the same number has been digitized, but has not yet been entered into the database. To do this, we, together with specialists from Data East, have created sample cards, in each of which we place an image of a mineral or rock and a number of its geological characteristics: name, chemical composition, weight, size, date of receipt in the storage of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth”, place and date of extraction, name of the extractor. Of course, not every sample is provided with a full list of this data — often some characteristics are unknown to us. Not all samples are provided with a photo image — only the exposition ones and the most impressive in appearance. The rest will be accompanied only by descriptions at the first stage, said Olga Khokhryakova, a research fellow at the Evolution of the Earth Scientific and Educational Center.
The database compilers still have a lot of work ahead of them. Many of the specimens that require detailed descriptions and photographs are under glass, so the database contains incomplete data and “rough” photographs. The specimens from the Alexander Godovikov collection, located in the passage next to the exhibition halls of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth”, have full descriptions. The remaining specimens, which are stored packed in boxes, will not be accompanied by photographs for now.
— The storage facilities of the Geological and Geophysical Faculty contain thousands of undescribed samples brought back from student practices and expeditions in the 1980s and 1990s. Before the creation of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth” in the new building, there was an educational museum at the Geological and Geophysical Faculty (it was located in the laboratory building), and now its samples make up a significant part of the faculty’s collection. All the exhibits placed in display cases had descriptions and labels. In the new building, the collection was replenished with new samples. We also enter them into our database. But a considerable part of the minerals and rocks still remain unsorted. The samples are in boxes wrapped in old newspapers from the Soviet era. Now we sort them out, describe the contents and put them on the balance sheet. The most spectacular samples have been selected for placement in museum display cases or in educational collections intended for classrooms, — said Olga Khokhryakova.
In addition, the staff of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth” work with unaccounted samples brought from geological practices and trips of the members of the student mineralogical society “Crystal”. For several decades, these samples were stored in the laboratory building of NSU, and now they have been transported to the storage facilities of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth”. Some parcels with samples have not yet been unpacked. The most interesting and beautiful samples were previously selected and placed in display cases of the museum of the SMO “Crystal”, the rest did not have time to be sorted out. Now NSU geologists have taken up this work, dividing the samples into several categories. They combine samples, for example, by place of discovery, chemical composition or area of application. The volume of the collection to be sorted out is calculated not in the number of boxes, but in cubic meters. At the moment, there are 10 of them.
— We classify, systematize, arrange all the samples that come to us by storage location and enter them into the database, which allows us to quickly and easily find them in the storage facility when there is a need to form exhibitions, replenish educational collections or present them as illustrations on the Internet. We understand that a methodical description of all the samples will probably take a decade, so we decided to take a different approach: first, we select those samples that are interesting to us from an exhibition or educational point of view, and work with them. We will move on to less interesting samples later. We fill the database gradually, as we describe the samples, — Olga Khokhryakova explained.
According to the plan of the staff of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth”, the database they are creating will not only be used internally. Access to the database is via the Internet, adding and viewing information occurs within the framework of the geoportal, which presents the mineralogical and paleontological expositions of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth”. Different levels of access – for employees who can edit data, and for visitors who will visit the site to admire photographs of sparkling crystals and multi-colored stones, and at the same time learn interesting facts about them – are configured using CoGIS. Visitors to the geoportal will be able to familiarize themselves with the contents of the exhibition showcases of the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth” and with each exhibit presented on them separately. It is assumed that NSU employees and students will be able to see more information than all other visitors. For example, they will be able to get acquainted with archival and educational collections.
— Our website, thanks to its impressive design and beautiful photo illustrations, will attract the attention of schoolchildren and teachers. Having learned about us, teachers will be able to contact the Scientific and Educational Center “Evolution of the Earth” with a request for educational mineralogical collections, which would present, for example, minerals and rocks that are often found in our region, or samples necessary for mastering the curricula in geography and chemistry. Our employees form school collections at the request of teachers. One of them was transferred to Novosibirsk School No. 112 in November last year, — said Olga Khokhryakova.
The website, which contains a database of mineralogical and paleontological samples, is expected to become available to a wider audience later this year.
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