National Digital Heritage Strategy

National Digital Heritage Strategy 2021-2024

Every four years, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Dutch Digital Heritage Network review the National Digital Heritage Strategy and the agenda for the network. Are the challenges and goals still relevant? New in the updated strategy is the inclusion of heritage of the arts and creative industries. Digital archives of culture-producing institutions are increasingly a source for new artistic products, offer new insights into the creation process and are a source of inspiration for creators, from artists to designers. The new platforms Podiumkunst.net and the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture (NADD), together with DEN, the knowledge institute for culture and digital transformation, help culture-producing institutions with their digital collection creation. In doing so, the knowledge and tools of partners in the Dutch Digital Heritage Network come in handy.

The updated strategy also identifies the ambitions of heritage institutions, science and technology to rely heavily on artificial intelligence (AI), big data and other technologies in the coming years. This will enable even wider dissemination of heritage. The Culture and Media Working Group of the Netherlands AI Coalition (NLAIC) lists all opportunities in a joint innovation agenda for culture and media. This could include pilots with heritage and culture-producing institutions to use AI techniques for handwriting, image and speech recognition, with the ethical side also receiving full attention. All institutions in the network can benefit from this in the future.

National Digital Heritage Strategy

The aim of the National Digital Heritage Strategy is to make digital heritage more accessible to everyone, enabling people and communities to experience heritage in the ways that suit them best. In order to achieve this goal, work is already underway on a digital infrastructure – a collection of agreements, standards, and facilities that will allow many different kinds of heritage to be linked together. The National Strategy provides guidance throughout this process. It was developed in close consultation between the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and all heritage stakeholders who participate in the Dutch Digital Heritage Network.

Dutch Digital Heritage Network

Since 2015, the Dutch Digital Heritage Network has been responsible for implementing the National Digital Heritage Strategy. The network is made up of organisations, communities and individuals from all across the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Participants include museums, archives, libraries and their employees, as well as industry associations, software vendors, researchers, programmers, educators, consultants, historical societies, and local heritage communities. All of them support the goals of the National Strategy and are contributing to connected heritage in ways that suit their expertise and capabilities. Governments also have an important role to play in supporting and encouraging this shared approach, for example through the provincial heritage support centres (erfgoedhuizen).