Biblioteca Nacional Aruba ta ricibi e OCLC ACURIL Award pa ‘Innovative Cooperation Initiatives in the Caribbean’ pa e proyecto/plataforma ‘Coleccion Aruba’. E reconocimento prestigioso aki ta un testimonio di e creatividad y compromiso di e proyecto pa promove cooperacion y innovacion den comunidad. A entrega e premio na señor drs. Peter Scholing, diahuebs merdia durante e conferencia di ACURIL cu ta tumando luga e siman aki na Corsou.
Dor di promove iniciativa innovativo di cooperacion, ta yega na solucion y ta trece un spirito di colaboracion y uzo optimal di recurso di otro cu ta inspira y haci impacto. Biblioteca Nacional Aruba (BNA) y Archivo Nacional Aruba (ANA) ta e dos institucion di herencia cultural principal na Aruba. Como colaborador di hopi aña den preservacion cultural y accessibilidad, e dos institucion ta compromete pa salvaguardia y comparti e patrimonio dokumental y audiovisual di e isla. Nan liderazgo conhunto den transformacion digital, accesso liber y participacion comunitario a haci nan pionero di iniciativa cooperativo den Caribe Hulandes.
Biblioteca Nacional Aruba receives ‘OCLC Award for ‘Innovative Cooperation Initiatives in the Caribbean’
Biblioteca Nacional Aruba is the recipient of the OCLC ACURIL Award for ‘Innovative Cooperation Initiatives in the Caribbean’ for the ‘Coleccion Aruba’ project. This prestigious recognition is a testament to the project’s creativity and commitment to fostering cooperation and innovation within the community. The award was handed to Mr. drs. Peter Scholing Tuesday afternoon during the ACURIL Conference which takes place this week in Curaçao.
By promoting innovative cooperation initiatives, critical needs within the Caribbean are addressed, fostering a spirit of collaboration and resourcefulness that is both inspiring and impactful.
The National Library of Aruba (BNA) and the National Archives of Aruba (ANA) are the two leading public heritage institutions of Aruba. As long-standing collaborators in cultural preservation and access, both institutions are deeply committed to safeguarding and sharing the island’s documentary and audiovisual heritage. Their joint leadership in digital transformation, open access, and community engagement has made them pioneers of cooperative initiatives in the Dutch Caribbean and beyond.
Coleccion Aruba
Coleccion Aruba is a national digital heritage initiative launched in 2022. Built through a dynamic partnership between founders BNA, ANA, and the cultural foundation UNOCA, the project represents a milestone in regional innovation by uniting the collections of multiple institutions into a single, open-access digital platform.
Objectives:
* To develop an inclusive, multilingual digital platform showcasing Aruba’s cultural, historical, and academic collections.
* To preserve fragile materials through digitization and ensure long-term access.
* To foster sustainable collaboration among Aruban heritage institutions, and institutions with Aruban/Caribbean collections in the region and beyond.
* To serve as a model of regional innovation and digital solidarity.
Innovation and Methodology:
Coleccion Aruba demonstrates innovation through its:
* Cooperative network-based governance structure, ensuring equal participation from BNA, ANA, and partner institutions.
* Use of open-source technologies and standards (IIIF, XML/JSON-based data API) to ensure interoperability and long-term scalability.
* Development of a shared metadata framework to standardize records across institutions.
* Bilingual (Papiamento and English) design for accessibility and inclusion, and a full-text translation module powered by Google Translate to ensure that the multilingual content of the digital collection can be read and understood by readers of all languages.
* Engagement with community curators, researchers, and youth to co-create digital content and exhibitions.
* This initiative is the first of its kind in Aruba and among the first in the Caribbean to aggregate and harmonize national cultural collections under a unified digital infrastructure.
Results and Impact:
* Over 150,000 items—including newspapers, photographs, videos, 3D objects, books, magazines, theses, dissertations, art, maps, oral histories, and manuscripts—have been digitized and made accessible. The collection includes millions of pages of digital-born and digitized (printed and handwritten) materials, all full-text searchable.
* Coleccion Aruba has improved discovery and use of national heritage by researchers, educators, and the public, both locally and internationally.
* The project has strengthened institutional cooperation, modernized archival practices, and catalyzed a cultural shift toward openness and innovation.
* It has received international recognition, including the 2024 Internet Archive Hero Award, the ACURILEANA Medal of Excellence, and most recently a ‘UNESCO Memory of the World’ designation for some of its slavery-related (physical and digital) holdings. Press coverage included PBS Newshour, Wired Magazine, The Verge, and several Caribbean and European media outlets.
* Most importantly, Coleccion Aruba has empowered smaller institutions by offering shared digital infrastructure, capacity-building, and visibility.
* Coleccion Aruba‘s digital collections include tens of thousands of items about other islands in the (Dutch) Caribbean and serves as the de facto largest digital collection for those islands as well. Aruba is actively collaborating with several of these islands (Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten) to work on digital collection websites for these islands as well.
