WEBVTT

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One of the things on the Netherlands'
agenda during its EU Presidency

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is open access to
cultural heritage.

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This means that all Europeans
would have online access

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to digital versions of European cultural
and scientific institutions' collections.

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But what can be found in those
digitalised collections?

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No idea. -And, um...
Photo collages?

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I would think paintings, images.
-Newspaper articles, photos...

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But not only that, you can also find
video footage of historical events,

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famous authors' diaries, letters
by heads of state, logbooks,

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postcards, posters, love letters, soundbites,
architectural drawings and so on.

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All these European historical legacies are
completely digital and available to all.

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But aren't they
already accessible?

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Yes, those things
are accessible,

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but you must try very hard if
you want to combine them all.

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You must go to many different
archives and websites.

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Our goal is to improve
accessibility,

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so that everyone can access the
information requested in one click.

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Nice, but what can you
do with all this data?

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For example, if you teach
history in school,

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you can use those digital collections
to compile your own course material.

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To me, the advantage of making
digital heritage accessible

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is that I can work much faster and offer
students much more tailored material,

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with assignments they
like much better.

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You see that, if they get material
they've chosen themselves,

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they become much more motivated
to do an assignment.

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I love that.

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It's very important in the education
sector that, if you find material,

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you can also make use of it.

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You can enlarge it or shrink it.
You can cut and paste it.

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That means that students can
actively engage with it.

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For a teacher, access to digital
heritage is incredibly valuable.

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For me, as a
researcher, as well.

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Now, in a very short time, I can
find material from across Europe,

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which I can use in my research.

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Something that used to take
me months, if not years.

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Another vital factor, which is now
very easy, is the reuse of data.

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I have an example.

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From the 15th well into the 19th century,
Dutch captains sailed to Scandinavia.

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They were required to keep a logbook,
full of notes about the water, the wind.

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Because we've digitalised these logbooks,
we now know the water temperature

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at a certain spot, over the
course of 400 hundred years.

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So we know a lot, for
example, about the climate.

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If the logbooks weren't
digitally accessible,

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scientists from another discipline never
would have been able to see them.

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That's why institutions should make
their data available digitally.

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We agree.

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Here, we house one of the world's
largest digital media archives,

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which is so relevant
and vital to society,

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but also to the areas of education,
culture, art and science,

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that we believe those collections, the
archives, must remain accessible.

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We also work for the
creative industry.

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It's also about how you can use
that material to inspire others

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to make new programmes,
formats and so on.

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So, reuse is also
very important.

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That's why the Netherlands believes
that the process of opening collections

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must be expanded in Europe.

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Culture determines who we are and where
we come from, what our identity is.

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So, it's very important

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that we, as Europeans, can
discuss it with one another.

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So, that material must be
accessible to everyone.

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That's why we're making the accessibility
of digital cultural heritage

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a top priority during
our EU Presidency.