National Digital Heritage Strategy

National Digital Heritage Strategy 2025-2028

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? For this update, input was gathered from the heritage field in the European Netherlands and in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

The National Digital Heritage Strategy 2025-2028 and the agenda for the network set the course for the next four years. The basis, sharing heritage information from the source, remains central. There will be a more explicit focus on heritage from all parts of the Kingdom, and forms of intangible cultural heritage, such as oral histories and stories.

In line with the Faro Implementation Agenda, community heritage and the societal and connecting value of heritage are given greater emphasis. The strategy also focuses on better findability and usability of digital heritage, and on all kinds of facets of sustainability: from avoiding duplication of work in the network, efficient use of available resources to environmentally responsible working.

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).