The Dutch digital heritage in one place
Geheugen van Nederland
The Memory of the Netherlands public campaign, an initiative of the Digital Heritage Network, seeks to connect the hundreds of digital collections of Dutch museums, libraries and archives. In this way, the Memory of the Netherlands introduces as many people as possible to all the digital heritage that the Netherlands has to offer.
The challenge
"When we got to know Basic Orange and two other partners, it was quite a search. It was the first time we started to realise what the site was and wasn't. For example, some people think: ah, so here I canfindeverything in terms of digital heritage. So it really isn't. We have made conscious choices to avoid such misunderstandings. For example, the website does not have a search function. It purely fulfils the purpose of a campaign website. Another challenge was the diversity we strive for. This is reflected in the content of the articles, but also in the digital accessibility of the website: for example, the use by people with a reading disability, the structure on the pages and the use of colour. In the end, I also really like the design of the website. The colourful twists and turns in the design are cheerful, yet calm."
The collaboration
"We knew Basic Orange from our heritage network and immediately thought we would be a good fit. Of course, there are many service providers, but it makes a difference if you have experience in these kinds of cultural environments as a company. We got the impression that this was well organised at Basic Orange. I have fond memories of the project meetings we had every week in the beginning together with two other partners and the editors. Together, we made sure we were moving in the same direction and at the same pace. I would definitely do that again next time. And then there is flexibility: the development of our website was done iteratively. We didn't know in advance how we were going to do everything exactly. Basic Orange has adopted a particularly flexible and customer-oriented approach. If priorities shift, then we can also shift a bit, seemed to be the approach. I would describe it as no-nonsense, just get on with it. I liked that."
The future
"The project phase is now over, but it could well be that the campaign will develop further in 2021. We will probably see a transition to truly physically connected heritage, although that will take some time. There will probably be more references to digital collections where this connection already exists, such as the Netherlands Collection, Delpher and the War Sources Network. For the website, it will be important to maintain clarity, even if, for example, we go from six to thirty different themes. Under the name Werkplaats Geheugen van Nederland (Workshop Memory of the Netherlands ), experiments are also being carried out with what connected digital heritage can really mean in the future. Now you click on a story and you will be taken to the website of an institution. All those websites have their own design, their own way of downloading files, etc. In the future, the idea is to develop that further and create more consistency between the websites on these kinds of points."
Header photo: E.G. Malindine, 1944, Imperial War Museum
The result
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