Digital preservation: how we keep our digital collection accessible

The KB has a lot of knowledge about digital preservation: keeping our digital collection accessible in the long term. This is how we ensure that our digital collection remains complete and reliable. We share our knowledge within the Digital Heritage Network. Read more about our expertise in digital preservation on this page.

What does the KB do about digital preservation? With what results? And how do we help other heritage institutions?

The KB is responsible for the written word. Managing digital files such as publications and websites and keeping them accessible in the long term is part of this. This is what we do: 

• We developed a preservation policy. This tells you how to preserve digital material while maintaining integrity and authenticity. In other words: without the files being accidentally altered and with the guarantee that future users will see the publication or website as it once appeared.
• We have knowledge of the process that an organisation must go through to obtain the certificate that proves that you have a reliable digital archive, the CoreTrustSeal.
• We share our knowledge and experience with the Digital Heritage Network. This network brings together Dutch institutions in the fields of culture, heritage, education and research. See for example the certification guide and the sustainability policy guide.
• On behalf of the Digital Heritage Network we manage the national register of web archives.
• We manage the Kostprijsmodel, the model that makes the costs of sustainable accessibility visible. The KB also does this on behalf of the Digital Heritage Network.

By thinking about digital preservation, our digital collection will also be safe in the future. After all, storing digital files involves risks. The files can become damaged, for example because the CD-ROM on which the file is stored breaks down. File formats can also become outdated, which means they are no longer supported by modern computers.

Digital preservation involves thinking about these risks. If you know the risk, you can also think about a possible solution. If, for example, you realise in time that a file format will no longer be supported, you can convert the file to another format. This is how we ensure that digital files are kept safe, also for later generations.

In recent years, the KB has paid a great deal of attention to preservation. With success:

• The KB preserves more than 1.5 petabytes of digital material. That is more than one billion files and an estimated 60 million publications.
• These 60 million publications include some 88,000 e-books.
• The KB archives Dutch websites. There are now almost 21,000 of them.
• In 2021 the KB obtained the CoreTrustSeal. This certificate shows that the digital archive of the KB meets the basic requirements of a reliable digital archive.

• preservation
• web archiving

Digital Preservation Officers

• Daniel Steinmeier
• Sam Alloing

Metadata specialists digital preservation

• Inge Hofsink
• Susanne van den Eijkel