The Archives, an informal museum of sorts that records the history of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and contemporary biology research in the country, was inaugurated on Monday.

It has been set up in a 1,500 sq.ft. space in the Eastern Lab Complex (ELC) in NCBS, and includes reading rooms, exhibition areas and a professional recording room for oral history interviews and podcasts. The Archives has been shaped by over 40 students and professionals between 2016 and 2018.

It is free and open to the public.

From manuscripts and negatives to books and scientific equipment and field and lab notes, The Archives aims be a collecting space that enables ‘diverse’ stories of biological research, says a release.

For now, The Archives has five manuscript collections, seven institutional collections, two artefact collections, two bibliographic collections, and an oral history collection.