AgTecCollection – Repository Approach to Rescue Analogue Agricultural Engineering Knowledge

Until the end of the last century, scientific activities and results were created and made available almost exclusively in analogue form. In order to be able to preserve and use them in the digital world of today and tomorrow, their digitisation is essential. For the project AgTecCollection in mediaTUM®, the initial situation is presented. This is followed by information on methodology and digitisation. Subsequently, the indexing and publication of almost 60,000 objects as images, documents, films/videos, and research data is presented. Evaluations of accesses and downloads provide an overview of the worldwide use of the collection to date. These are based on the search algorithms provided by mediaTUM and on selection and display options created specifically for the collection. Based on this, further methodological approaches are shown to use the created metadata treasure trove for the analysis of past trends and dependencies of agricultural technology. Automatic keywording of digitised and digital objects, on the other hand, could be generated through the use of artificial intelligence. This would allow the archive to accommodate current and future digital objects with little effort. An initial installation of a digital twin demonstrates the ease of transferability and adaptation to regional and language requirements.