More than 100,000 objects of our cultural heritage are digitally accessible via www.coleccion. aw

Aruba sets an example with more than ten agencies collaborating on the digital platform Coleccion Aruba. The platform made more than 100,000 objects of Aruba's cultural heritage accessible, including documents and videos through the website www.coleccion.aw.

Coleccion Aruba originated from the pioneering work of the National Library of Aruba, where the library collection has been digitized and made accessible gradually through their website and via www.Archive.org, a digital archive providing universal access to information. In close collaboration with the initial partners, the National Archives of Aruba, UNOCA, the National Archaeological Museum Aruba, the Monument Foundation Aruba, Plantage Zorg en Hoop, and more recently with Telearuba and the Department of Culture, the Monument Office, the University of Aruba, and UNESCO Aruba, Coleccion Aruba is growing into the most extensive digital archive of information about Aruba in Papiamento.

The information on coleccion.aw is accessible on the Internet via the Internet Archive through archive.org, founded by Mr. Brewster Kayle, to create an Internet library providing permanent access to historical information in digital form for researchers, historians, and students. During the pandemic, an employee of the Internet Archive visited the National Library and suggested that the library's digitized collection be made freely accessible on the Internet via archive.org. With the help of Setar NV, which donated the domain coleccion.aw, the successful collaboration with Internet Archive began and developed, allowing us to have more than 100,000 objects of Aruba's cultural heritage online. During the first day of the symposium 'Dutch Caribbean Digital Heritage Week', Mr. Kayle, on behalf of the Internet Archive, handed over two external hard drives to the members of the Coleccion Aruba platform, containing a backup of the entire content of www.coleccion.aw, which so far amounts to 10 terabytes of information.

The website www.coleccion.aw was officially launched last year in September and updated recently to provide users with better navigation. Through www.coleccion.aw, users can access more than 100,000 objects, including 40,000 documents, 60,000 images, and seven objects in 3D. www.coleccion.aw thus becomes the largest digital archive in our language, Papiamento, and a vibrant example of collaboration in our region. It is an innovation project in the field of culture in Aruba. The digital platform of Coleccion Aruba is a project that, in addition to digitizing our cultural heritage, uses artificial intelligence to facilitate historical research in Aruba and make this historical information more accessible to our community. It makes www.coleccion.aw an innovative project for Aruba and our region. Thanks to the collaboration platform Coleccion Aruba and Internet Archive, the cultural heritage of Aruba is universally accessible.