Collection and Research
The year 2008 was an anniversary year for “Transilvania” University of Braşov, because 60 years have passed since setting up the higher education in this city. Nevertheless, the beginnings are much older. The first records of a forestry school in Transilvania date back in 1817. They consist in a three-year program, coordinated by the French silviculturist Guilleaume. The organization of the studies was inspired from the French educational model, the first professors being French and subsequently Romanian professors formed at the School of Waters and Forests from Nancy.
The project FORESTRY sets out to intensify the students’ awareness degree towards keeping and appreciating the local and international cultural and scientific values. It is a research project that includes professionals from the University Library and from the Faculty of Silviculture, having as objective to enhance the older collections within this faculty (especially old book collections, plants, technical objects, dendrological collections, cynegetic collections)
Among these collections, of the highest interest for the expert silviculturists, there is the Romanian and foreign old book collection in the forestry domain, comprising 760 volumes from the nineteenth century. The large number of publications in German and French attest the influence that the forestry education in the framework of these countries manifested upon the education in the field of forest engineering and silviculture in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
The project development stages will be presented – from identifying and describing the collections, filling in the individual sheets of the exhibits that entail the consultation of the experts, to analyzing the preservation and conservation conditions, in view of elaborating a broad plan for attaining the necessary standard conditions.
In the framework of the actions for promoting and enhancing the collections, the project has as goal to develop the methods and means for facilitating the access to collections, in compliance with the standards of preservation, organisation of the thematic exhibitions and development of the virtual museum.