Dutch Royal Library to digitise the Dutch books, magazines and newspapers

The Royal Library (RL) plans to make digital copies of all Dutch publications from 1470 onwards in its collection. Furthermore, the Library will archive some 10.000 Dutch web sites. To make these works accessible to as many people as possible, the RL also develops a portal that should function as an online library. The Royal Library’s CEO Bas Savenije states that “Now, the supply of information in The Netherlands is strongly fragmented.”

To make sure that also works that are copyrighted remain accessible, the RL confers with rights holders. To a reporter of Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, Savenije says: “In close cooperation with all parties concerned, we aim to create a joint national infrastructure that fully exploits the possibilities of the digital world.”

The RL announced this on January 11th, at the presentation of its plans for the coming three years.

The Library is working hard to digitise books, magazines and newspapers in her collection. In 2013, it aims to have made digital 10% of its collection. That amounts to roughly 73 million pages. Also content that only exists digitally, like websites or the contents of scientific journals, are included in the electronic collection.

12-01-2010