Preserving CERN's legacy

TL;DRAbstract

At CERN, scientists from all over the world design and build innovative instruments to be implemented in the cutting-edge machines used in high-energy physics. Those instruments go on to become part of the world’s most powerful accelerators, Nobel-prize-winning detectors, unique antimatter machines, the first web servers… These are historical pieces and belong to our common heritage. But, what happens to them once they are no longer in use? New endeavours consistently require new technical developments, and the list of “old” objects belonging to a laboratory like CERN increases over time. As innovative as they might have been when they were created, they are often bulky, sometimes very delicate, and do not always look like everyday tools when they are dismantled. How best to deal with them? “A database of objects suitable for scientific exhibitions has been available on CDS for many years,” says Gigi Rolandi, Chair of CERN’s Scientific Information Policy Board (SIPB), the body in charg

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