Four major Dutch heritage organisations, including the KB, signed the Open Heritage Statement. In doing so, signatory organisations demonstrate their commitment to protecting public digital heritage and keeping it accessible.
Open Heritage Statement
By signing the Open Heritage Statement, signatory organisations are expressing their belief that public digital heritage must be better protected and made accessible. Because even works whose copyright has expired are not necessarily publicly accessible. For the KB, signing it aligns well with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to which it is committed: ensuring public access to information, protecting heritage and promoting literacy.
Importance of signing for public values
The heritage organisations that signed the statement are Nieuwe Instituut, KNAW Humanities Cluster, Beeld & Geluid and the KB National Library. Each organisation deals with a specific domain: archives, libraries, museums, audiovisual heritage, heritage of makers and art institutions, and research data.
They are so-called nodes in the Dutch Digital Heritage Network (NDE). This is a broad partnership of Dutch cultural heritage institutions, archives, historical societies and other parties that together preserve digital heritage, make it findable and maintain its accessibility.
The organisations subscribe to the mission of the Open Heritage Statement. NDE's new chair, KB management team member Geertrui Verbraak: "In these changing times, we as organisations and as a heritage network not only focus on the importance of open heritage, but also on the changing use of public data by AI, among others. We do this to continue to safeguard public values when making our digital heritage available."
DIGITAL HERITAGE NETWORK (NDE)
A network approach was adopted when the National Digital Heritage Strategy was launched in 2015. Participants in the NDE work together to connect digital heritage online and make it openly available. By pooling knowledge, resources and competences, the participants achieve results that none of them could achieve individually. Digital heritage can be anything, from scanned photos and documents to video games and digital art. Preserving this maintains the connection to our past.
