National Strategy for Digital Heritage

Digitisation of the heritage sector has been an important topic in the Netherlands for the last twenty years. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has invested a lot in the digitisation of collections. In order to improve its use and accessibility, the Ministry launched the National Strategy for Digital Heritage in 2015. This strategy is implemented by the Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed (Dutch Digital Heritage Network, NDE). This strategy is designed to connect heritage collections in a digital environment. This connection is realised along three lines: sustainability, usability and visibility. The NDE is a partnership in the Netherlands that focuses on developing a system of national facilities and services for improving the visibility, usability, and sustainability of digital heritage. The network is open to all institutions and organisations in the digital heritage field. Together they make the most of the Dutch digital heritage and preserve it for future generations. More and more collections from archives, libraries, media, museums and knowledge institutions are becoming available digitally and online. By working together, the network can make optimal use of the digital collections in the Netherlands and keep them accessible. For this, heritage institutions and partnerships in the heritage field need knowledge, services and facilities that can be shared. The NDE wants to make this possible, as a place for meeting, coordination and collaboration. The NDE activities developed from digitisation towards visibility, usability and participation. Scientists, journalists and the general public are the main focus of the collaboration of the heritage institutions who work together in the NDE and their efforts to connect heritage in a digital world. The network is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The NDE consists of various institutions in the field of culture, heritage, education and research. National institutions take common responsibility for building and sustaining this network: the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands), the Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision), the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency, RCE), the Humanities Cluster of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Nationaal Archief (National Archive) and Het Nieuwe Instituut.