What is the DEN foundation?
The DEN Foundation (Digitaal Erfgoed Nederland / Digital Heritage Netherlands) is the Dutch knowledge center for digital heritage.
DEN supports archives, museums and other heritage institutions to improve their digital strategies and services. The sharing of knowledge of and experiences with ICT is a core mission of DEN. Furthermore, DEN encourages the institutions to invest in open technology, to implement ICT-standards and to make use of other tools that contribute to sustainable information services.
Read more about DEN in our corporate flyer.
DEN is sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs and Science.
Did you know that DEN…
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maintains a knowledge base on digital heritage to promote relevant ICT standards and share information on basic and best practices?
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monitors the achievements of the Dutch heritage institutions and encourages them to participate in innovative projects?
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organises expert meetings, workshops and conferences to support cross-sectoral co-operation?
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is an active partner in national and international heritage and research communities?
- is a member of the core committee for the technical development of Europeana, and a core member of the ENUMERATE project?
For whom?
Since 1999, DEN works closely with heritage institutions as well as research groups, governmental organisations, branche organisations and other institutions with a supporting role in the cultural sector. DEN’s knowledge is the knowledge of these institutions and vice versa. DEN leads the way and presents tools to heritage institutions for better ICT practice.
International activities and publications
Read more about all international activities and publications (in English) of DEN.
DEN knowledge base
DEN publishes relevant information (in Dutch) about standardisation and best practices regarding the digitisation of cultural heritage. The information is collected in a freely accessible, interconnected online knowledge base and focuses on four main subjects.
- The overview of ICT standards and guidelines provides up to date information about ICT standards used by Dutch heritage institutions, including links to important documentation, relevant institutions, and projects that make use of certain guidelines. www.den.nl/standaarden
- Information about best practices and better practices by Dutch cultural heritage institutions is published in our project inventory. It is linked to our database with standards and guidelines in order to show the implementation of ICT standards in running projects. The project database is also used as a tool to monitor the development of a Dutch national Digital Heritage Collection. www.den.nl/projecten
- The inventory of cultural heritage institutions contains profiles with information about digitisation activities, involvement in projects, the implementation of standards and guidelines, and examples of digitisation plans. www.den.nl/instellingen
- The subject files provide information about a wide variety of subjects such as copyright, digital preservation, business models, green computing, semantic web and web statistics. www.den.nl/thema
THE BASICS ('DE BASIS')
THE BASICS define a set of minimal requirements for digitisation activities within the context of the national infrastructure for digital heritage. Application of THE BASICS guarantees quality, interoperability, sustainability and efficiency during the entire digitisation life cycle. www.den.nl/debasis
Currently, THE BASICS provides guidelines for the following topics:
- findability of digital data
- digital preservation
- creation of digital objects
- description of digital objects
- presentation of digital objects
Contact
E den@den.nl
W www.den.nl
T +31 (0)70 314 0343
F +31 (0)70 314 0100
The DEN Foundation
P.O. Box 90407
2509 LK The Hague
The Netherlands
