9 The collections of TUD Dresden University of Technology – tradition and new perspectives A comprehensive collections policy, which recognized the particular value of the academic and cultural heritage for the University, ensuring its survival, came into force for the first time in the shape of the “Preservation of the Scientific and Technical Collections, the Art Collections and the Cultural Monuments of TUD” (Rundschreiben 1/2004). These regulations defined the Office for Academic Heritage’s remit regarding guidance, advice and control as well as that of the “safeguarding institutions”. This terminology reveals the principle of decentralized collections that is practiced at TUD: The collections remain the responsibility of the different chairs,institutes, faculties or even workshops. The actual institution is responsible for appointing a collection officer and communicating movement and change in the collections. The decision to keep collections with supposedly mere historical value in their original contexts has since repeatedly proven to be the right one, as it allows them to be “reactivated” and used in current research and teaching. As with the precious works of art in its museums and its exceptional cultural monuments, collections in the Free State of Saxony are governed by the State’s Heritage Protection Law. This means they are entitled to the protection of the state and the associated duty of preservation. The regulations concerning collections at TUD can therefore invoke the status of state heritage. Compared to other university collections in Germany, this constitutes a positive exception. The regulations for collections and the principles of collecting have created important fundamentals for an orderly collecting process at TUD, and still serve as an example for similar efforts. For the introduction of these structures that are still in existence today, thanks must go to Klaus Mauersberger, the Director of the Office for Academic Heritage from 1993 to 2015. He also shouldered the responsibility for the first edition of this volume and describes the historical development of the collections in this new edition. New strategic orientation of the Office for Academic Heritage from 2016 The core tasks of the Office for Academic Heritage can be divided into three main areas: Preservation and use of the University collections, documentation and reflection regarding topics concerning the University and the history of its collections, as well as maintaining the pieces of art in University ownership and organizing exhibitions. Since 2016, under new leadership and a new team, it has been possible to plan and successfully implement a number of innovations for the University gallery and the art holdings, as well as in the area of collection maintenance. A primary goal of the new strategic orientation was to make greater use of the collections of technical and scientific objects for today’s research projects in teaching, and for new and cross-university projects conveying knowledge. It was also a priority to make them more visible inside the University and beyond, both throughout Germany and internationally. Back in 2011, the German Science and Humanities Council formulated its “Recommendations on Scientific Collections as Research Infrastructures” (German Science and Humanities Council 2011), creating a crucial basis for re-evaluating university collections and also as a result, for the orientation of the Dresden Office for Academic Heritage. Building on the existing structures, greater emphasis was given to previously unused potentials of the collections as bearers of meaning in scientific practice, as a material source of research, but also as an object of artistic examination. A prerequisite for documenting and taking stock of the objects in the collections was a modern database, which was introduced in 2019, replacing existing inventories. From the end of 2020, it was possible for the first time to implement urgently needed restoration measures and continuous monitoring of the inventory by hiring more staff for the Office for Academic Heritage. The development of a digital and conservational infrastructure will ensure the future preservation and usability of the collections. The creation of the Office for Academic Heritage’s new Scientific Advisory Board in 2015 constituted a far-reaching structural change. The foremost task of the Advisory Board is to “Scientific collections should be seen as essential research infrastructures whose preservation, upkeep and usability for research is not a dispensable ancillary service but a core task for the institutions which support them. The universities in particular need to embrace this view: even if universities are not museums, in their capacity as organisational centres of science and key sites for knowledge production and knowledge transfer, they are substantially dependent on collections as infrastructure.” German Science and Humanities Council 2011, p. 45
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