Topics in this newsletter:

• Collection Overijssel switches to Atlantis
• New Digital Guide for museums
• Debate on shortening the transfer period of the Archives Act
• Atlantis for small museums and heritage organizations

Collection Overijssel switches to Atlantis

DEVENTit will be the new supplier of the collection management system for Collection Overijssel. This became clear after a European tender, in which DEVENTit emerged as the highest-rated party. 

Collection Overijssel is the RHC for the province of Overijssel and also the archive organization for the municipalities of Deventer, Zwolle, Dalfsen, Olst-Wijhe, Ommen, and Zwartewaterland, for the Drents-Overijsselse Delta water board, and for the national services operating in the province. With Atlantis, Collection Overijssel gains a powerful, flexible, and future-proof platform that not only facilitates the internal management of the collection but also ensures efficient and user-friendly access to the heritage for the public. The system offers the possibility to digitize, manage, and present the collection in an advanced manner. This contributes to improving the visibility of the heritage, both for researchers and for a broader audience. 

Peter van Diermen emphasizes: ”The news that we were awarded this contract was celebrated at DEVENTit. Our team is proud and happy to carry out this assignment. We look forward to combining the expertise of Collection Overijssel and DEVENTit to make this collaboration a great success.”

New Digital Guide for museums

The Museum Association has launched a Digital Guide to support museums in their digital transformation. This guide provides museums with practical tools, guidelines, and best practices for digitizing collections, improving online visibility, and utilizing digital technologies for education and audience engagement. By optimally leveraging digital opportunities, museums can strengthen their role as knowledge institutions and share heritage in a modern and accessible way with a wide audience. 

The platform emphasizes the importance of using advanced collection management systems and digital technologies to strengthen the connection with the public. Museums can efficiently manage, present collections, and further develop digital strategies. Atlantis is mentioned as one of the collection management systems in the Digital Guide, enabling museums to digitize and present collections online. 

For museums and heritage institutions without a collection management system, Atlantis offers an accessible way to digitize and manage collections. Without complex implementation, organizations can easily structure and make heritage visible online. This helps us to make the collection future-proof and reach a broader audience.

Debate on shortening the transfer period of the Archives Act

On January 30, 2025, the House of Representatives completed the first term of the discussion on the new Archives Act. This law replaces the Archives Act of 1995 and is intended to better align with the digital age. An important change is the shortening of the transfer period of documents to archive services from twenty to ten years, contributing to greater transparency of the government. Additionally, the law requires municipalities, provinces, and water boards to appoint an archivist to ensure proper management.

During the debate, concerns were raised about the potential increase in workload for archivists and archive services due to the shortened transfer period. There was also discussion about the conditions for exemption from the transfer obligation and the assurance of the quality of archivists. Minister Bruins (Education, Culture, and Science) emphasized that the new law allows for well-motivated exemptions and that there are still ten years to adapt to the new transfer period. 

Atlantis offers an efficient solution for digitizing, managing, and transferring documents, enabling archives to comply with the requirements of the law. We assist archive institutions in implementing this process in a streamlined manner, ensuring the continuity of management.

Atlantis for small museums and heritage organizations

The board of the Atlantis User Group has started the new year fresh and is organizing a digital thematic meeting for users of Atlantis on Thursday, May 15 from 14:00 to 15:30 .

During this session, the central question is: how open are we with our collections? Are we mainly focused on internal use, or does Atlantis Collection Management Lite offer a powerful solution based on the proven Atlantis system, but with a low investment. This makes a full-fledged solution for collection management accessible to small heritage organizations and museums. The web-based collection management system of Atlantis Collection Management Lite provides full support for registering, managing, and presenting collections. The environment can be easily set up with the modules Museum, Image Bank or Library, depending on the needs of the organization.

Thanks to the user-friendly interface, organizations can quickly and easily get started. The extensive search functionalities, simple input of object data, and clear reports make Atlantis Collection Management Lite an ideal system for smaller institutions. Moreover, collections can be presented online via the Atlantis Public Environment, allowing museums and heritage institutions to make the collection easily accessible to the general public.

Since its introduction, Atlantis Lite has proven to be a great success. More than 30 organizations are now using the Lite offering, including parties such as Rotterdam Public Transport Museum, Municipal Museum Het Hannemahuis, Purmerend Museum, and Suriname Museum. In addition to museums, there are also private collections and Historical Associations that use the platform. 

Atlantis Collection Management Lite can be fully NDE Compatible set up so that it qualifies for the NDE Acceleration Scheme. This is financial support from the Digital Heritage Network to stimulate the application of Linked Open Data. We also see the public and other heritage organizations as important partners? And what role does Atlantis play in this?

The meeting will take place online via Google Meet. Users of Atlantis have received an invitation. If you have not yet registered or have not received an invitation, please let us know so we can forward the registration form.