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In Culture in an Open Society (2018), the Minister of Education, Culture, and Science presented her cultural policy. According to her, heritage is essential for society to engage in conversations about the past, present, and future, both at a local level (village or city) and a national level (the Netherlands in Europe). The underlying principle is that culture and therefore heritage belong to everyone and should be accessible to all. It is crucial that heritage reaches the broad public in all its diversity (for everyone). At the same time, it is important that this diverse public can use heritage for cultural and creative expressions (by everyone). Within this context, the Digital Heritage Intensification started in 2019, for which an additional €12.4 million in funding was made available by the ministry.
To assess the impact of this intensification, a baseline measurement was conducted in 2019. In the autumn of 2021, Dialogic, together with Pleiade Management & Consultancy, conducted the first evaluation and mapped out the availability, accessibility, findability, and usage of digital heritage. This involved online surveys among heritage organisations (604 responses) and the general public (1,518 responses). In addition, interviews were conducted within the heritage sector and with users from the education, science, and creative industries (26 individuals).
On Friday, 21st January 2022, the report was presented during the New Year's event of the Network Digital Heritage. The report can be found here.
We conclude that there is a substantial amount of digital heritage available, and the level of digitalisation (the percentage of collections available digitally) is increasing at a national level. Among the heritage organisations that participated in the online survey, 30% indicated that more than half of their collections are digitally available. 3% even stated that their collections are fully digitised. More than half (57%) mentioned that a quarter or less of their collection has been made digitally available, and 14% do not offer their collection digitally at all. The level of digitalisation strongly correlates with the size of the organisation.
We also observe widespread use of digital heritage. The policy objective of reaching 90% of all Dutch people digitally with heritage is being achieved for those interested in heritage (90%) and slightly exceeds the current reach among all Dutch people (87%). It is challenging to determine whether the policy objective of 30% participatory use is being met, as it is not entirely clear what is meant by active and/or participatory use. Based on the survey among the general public, it appears that the objective is not yet being met (12%), but it is close among young adults (26%). Additionally, a significant majority (71%) of the public using digital heritage perceives an effect, indicating more than just passive use.
Finally, it is essential to address barriers to digitalisation and how the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science can address them even after the intensification period. Key policy points in this respect include:
- (Structural) funding of digitalisation efforts.
- Involvement of smaller heritage organisations.
- Coordination between (smaller) heritage organisations and market parties (if there is a need).
- Sustainable storage and accessibility of born-digital heritage.
- Balance between more quantitative digitisation of heritage as data and qualitative accessibility for (particularly) the general public.
- Sharper definition of active and/or participatory use and consideration of the effects of efforts on availability, accessibility, and findability that do not directly lead to a quantitative increase in (participatory) use.
Want to learn more? Ask Max Kemman or download the report here.
Image: L.H. Hofland, collection The Utrecht Archives