Digitalization of the Collections
Since autumn 2019, TU Dresden has had a modern database for the management and digitalization of its valued collections: "robotron*Daphne". The Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections is in charge of the Digitalization of the Collections Project. The Daphne database is hosted and maintained at TU Dresden's ZIH (Center for Information Services and High Performance).
Status Quo
The digital compilation of the University collections with over a million highly heterogeneous objects commenced at the end of 2019. As of February 2021, the database already contains around 16506 records with 3735 images. The following collections have been digitalized thus far:
- Historical Acoustic-Phonetic Collection
(Pilot project in the context of the "Speaking Machine Fascination: Technological Transformation of Voice Synthesis over Two Centuries" in the framework of the joint project financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2017 conceived as a partnership between TUD's Institute of Acoustics and Speech Communications, as well as the SKD's Mathematisch-Physikalischen Salon (Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments) - Art Collections
- Collection of Historical Electrical Machines
- Historical Dye Collection (commenced)
In addition, various datasets from older databases were imported into the new system.
The Office for Academic Heritage is pursuing several goals with the establishment of a central collection database: On the one hand, preservation, care, and management will be optimized. For this purpose, documentation on the state of the preservation, the restoration measures, the investigation on provenances, and any loans will occur and be recorded in the future. A central objective is the improvement of the collections' applicability as an infrastructure for research and teaching. Database searches can now be conducted online, with this available for the first items from the end of 2020. This provision of the object data related to the collections also promises to increase the visibility of this unique collection and its (re)activation in research and teaching, as indeed as a resource for non-academic contexts and formats.
Find the Collection Online under the following link: https://sammlungen.tu-dresden.de
Contact

administrator & cataloguer
NameKatharina Lang
robotron DAPHNE
Send encrypted mail via the SecureMail portal (for TUD external users only).
Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections
Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections
Visiting address:
Bürogebäude Zellescher Weg (BZW), Eingang A Zellescher Weg 17
01069 Dresden