UBL signs Digital Heritage Network Manifesto
Leiden University Libraries (UBL) signed the manifesto of the Dutch Digital Heritage Network (NDE) this November, during Digital Heritage Month, thereby joining the network. The manifesto calls on archives, libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions to make their digital collections more visible, usable, and sustainable, by following national guidelines and network principles.
The NDE manifesto calls for a bridging of divides between Dutch digital heritage collections and for offering users unlimited access to heritage in the Netherlands. In this way, the needs of the user of the heritage collection are put centre stage.
The UBL heritage repository called Digital Collections now contains more than half a million objects. These objects are made available as widely as possible for education, research, and the interested public, anywhere in the world. By using open ICT standards, such as unique identifiers and the IIIF protocol, our digital objects are not only easy to find but can also be easily referenced from various online portals and publications. Consequently, users worldwide are increasingly able to find and use our digital collections in their preferred digital environment.
“It is important for institutions with heritage collections to intensively share knowledge with one another about their digital services and innovation. Digitisation offers wonderful opportunities for intensifying the use of our special collections, despite considerable challenges behind the scenes, such as multilingualism of metadata, arranging copyrights, knowing the wishes of our visitors and the implementation of artificial intelligence. By signing the manifesto and formally joining the Digital Heritage Network, we show how highly we value joint knowledge development.”
- Kurt De Belder, University Librarian & Director of University Libraries
Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed
The Digital Heritage Network is a partnership in the Netherlands that aims to exchange knowledge about digitization and services related to digital heritage. The UBL has been actively participating in this collaboration since its inception. By signing the NDE manifesto, the UBL emphasizes the importance of collaboration to bring heritage collections as close to the user as possible.