A first digitisation phase of the UMONS Earth Sciences collections in the framework of the DiSSCO-FWB project

The collections of the Geology and Applied Geology Department of the Engineering Faculty of the University of Mons are constituted of various collections of fossils, minerals and rocks. They include groups classified according to a systematic classification, others according to their geographical origin or their inventor, and which are generally of significant heritage interest. In particular, they include regional palaeontological discoveries dating back centuries, collected and studied by e.g. Jules Cornet, François-Léopold Cornet and Alphonse Briart and René Marlière. The tens of thousands of palaeontological samples include several dozen holotype species, particularly from the “Montian” (i.e. Danian) and Albian periods.
Thanks to the DiSSCo-FWB project, the Department of Geology and Applied Geology was able to acquire and set-up a digitisation platform, in order to digitise the Department's collections and to make them more easily accessible to researchers and the general public.
The idea was to design a solution adapted to Earth sciences samples. The characteristics of such samples are relatively heterogeneous, in terms of size (millimetre to metre), brightness, texture and relief. The choice of equipment was therefore based on a relatively versatile solution, with the emphasis on the quality of the images and the efficiency and flexibility of the acquisition process. The chosen solution contains of a reflex camera of at least 24 Mpx with a professional macro lens. This lens is complemented by a wide-angle lens more suited to large samples. As most of the subjects were three-dimensional objects, a focus stacking device was chosen and installed. This consists of an automated micrometric rail, which takes a series of clear photographs at different levels of the sample, and stacking software, which reconstructs a clear image from this series over the entire view of the sample.
Around 1,200 samples have been digitised so far. For each part, around 15 photos have been taken at different level of field in order to carry out the stacking operation. In all, around 18,000 photos have been taken for this initial digitisation phase.