One of the things on the Netherlands' agenda during its EU Presidency
is open access to cultural heritage.
This means that all Europeans would have online access
to digital versions of European cultural and scientific institutions' collections.
But what can be found in those digitalised collections?
No idea. -And, um... Photo collages?
I would think paintings, images. -Newspaper articles, photos...
But not only that, you can also find video footage of historical events,
famous authors' diaries, letters by heads of state, logbooks,
postcards, posters, love letters, soundbites, architectural drawings and so on.
All these European historical legacies are completely digital and available to all.
But aren't they already accessible?
Yes, those things are accessible,
but you must try very hard if you want to combine them all.
You must go to many different archives and websites.
Our goal is to improve accessibility,
so that everyone can access the information requested in one click.
Nice, but what can you do with all this data?
For example, if you teach history in school,
you can use those digital collections to compile your own course material.
To me, the advantage of making digital heritage accessible
is that I can work much faster and offer students much more tailored material,
with assignments they like much better.
You see that, if they get material they've chosen themselves,
they become much more motivated to do an assignment.
I love that.
It's very important in the education sector that, if you find material,
you can also make use of it.
You can enlarge it or shrink it. You can cut and paste it.
That means that students can actively engage with it.
For a teacher, access to digital heritage is incredibly valuable.
For me, as a researcher, as well.
Now, in a very short time, I can find material from across Europe,
which I can use in my research.
Something that used to take me months, if not years.
Another vital factor, which is now very easy, is the reuse of data.
I have an example.
From the 15th well into the 19th century, Dutch captains sailed to Scandinavia.
They were required to keep a logbook, full of notes about the water, the wind.
Because we've digitalised these logbooks, we now know the water temperature
at a certain spot, over the course of 400 hundred years.
So we know a lot, for example, about the climate.
If the logbooks weren't digitally accessible,
scientists from another discipline never would have been able to see them.
That's why institutions should make their data available digitally.
We agree.
Here, we house one of the world's largest digital media archives,
which is so relevant and vital to society,
but also to the areas of education, culture, art and science,
that we believe those collections, the archives, must remain accessible.
We also work for the creative industry.
It's also about how you can use that material to inspire others
to make new programmes, formats and so on.
So, reuse is also very important.
That's why the Netherlands believes that the process of opening collections
must be expanded in Europe.
Culture determines who we are and where we come from, what our identity is.
So, it's very important
that we, as Europeans, can discuss it with one another.
So, that material must be accessible to everyone.
That's why we're making the accessibility of digital cultural heritage
a top priority during our EU Presidency.