The Magic Book

Employees of the Kaliningrad Regional Amber Museum presented the virtual collection to students of the Children's Boarding School "Little Country" (Pravdinsk district, Krylovo) within the project "Museum in the Magic Book" on 31 July 2019.

To see the Magic Book, around 20 children gathered, they saw 3D images of the museum showpieces and listened to an interesting telling about them. The children were also able to have a close look at a wing of the mosquito, which petrified in amber, using a digital microscope. To make the meeting even more memorable, the museum specialists conducted for children a workshop in making an amber amulet. Every kid could make a gift to remember with his or her own hands.

The project "Museum in the Magic Book" was realised using the grant of the President of the Russian Federation, which the Amber Museum won as a laureate of the contest aimed at supporting creative projects of the national significance in the sphere of culture and arts.

The virtual collection of the Magic Book includes photographs of showpieces from the museum collection – amber samples, unique objects from the 17th–21st centuries and special codes for their 3D imaging. Such interactive exhibition allows to have a detailed look at the museum collection showpieces in 3D format, which are usually kept behind glass or in the vault.

The Magic Book arouses interest both of children, and adults. Such form of presentation is especially important for people, who can not visit museum due to their health condition.

Within the period from 2014 to 2019 the virtual collection has been presented to children with limited health abilities – participants of the project "Flowers of Life", made by the charitable foundation "The Coast of Hope", patients of the Regional Children's Hospital, students of the rehabilitation centre for disabled children "Childhood", regional rehabilitation centre for disabled people "New Horizons", children's psycho-neurological sanatorium "Teremok", and children day-care centre No 46.

The Children's Boarding School for Mentally Challenged Children "Little Country" is a specialised institution that provides stationary social services for children from 4 to 18 years old with mental development disorder. Work of this organisation includes educational programmes for children of pre-school and school age with apparent intellectual deficit, as well as programmes of social development and adaptation for children with severe intellectual retardation, and severe muscle-skeleton disorders.