Custom DERA integration development
The DERA, the Digital Heritage Reference Architecture, describes how heritage institutions make their collections visible, usable and sustainable in the national network: with persistent identification per object, shared terms and open standards. The collection system of a museum, archive or library is rarely built for this. Appfront builds the integration in between: your collection data goes from your own system to the national services, in the format the DERA prescribes, without you having to move your registration.
What is an integration under the Digital Heritage Reference Architecture?
A DERA integration makes the data from your collection system usable in the network of Dutch heritage institutions. The DERA is the reference architecture of the Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed (Dutch Digital Heritage Network), in which the KB (National Library of the Netherlands), the National Archives and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, among others, collaborate. It does not prescribe a system, but agreements: every object gets a persistent identification, concepts are linked to shared terms, and data is published in open standards so that national services can find and display it. The integration translates what is in your system into those agreements.
Without an integration, your collection exists in your own system and on your own website, and nowhere else. A researcher searching through a national portal will not find your objects. An export file delivered once a year is already out of date on the day it is delivered. And when the collection system is replaced, the identifications that others had linked to your objects turn out to no longer work.
We build custom because every collection management system has its own fields, its own thesaurus and its own export options. Which fields map to which shared term, how the persistent identifier is issued and stored, which parts of the collection you publish and how often: we decide this together with your collection manager. The integration runs alongside your system; the registration stays where it is.
Findable
Via national services.
Permanent address
Identification that lasts.
Your own source
Your system stays in charge.
How we build your Digital Heritage Reference Architecture integration
We start with your collection management system: which fields you use, which thesaurus, how you currently export and which national services you want to reach. Then we build the first integration, usually the publication of a defined part of the collection with persistent identification, because that immediately shows whether the translation is correct. Your collection manager checks it. Term linking, imagery and automatic updating follow once that works well. After that, we maintain the integration whenever the DERA or your system changes.
Fields, terms, export.
Part of the collection.
Linking and enrichment.
Go-live, monitoring, and maintenance when things change.
What a Digital Heritage Reference Architecture integration actually does
The components below appear in almost every DERA integration. Which ones you need depends on your collection management system and on what you want to publish.
Identification
Fixed and lasting per object.
Image
Own fields to standards.
Terms
Linked to shared lists.
Publication
Open data in the network.
Updating
Changes follow automatically.
Log
Visible per publication.
Who we build a Digital Heritage Reference Architecture integration for
The integration is intended for institutions that want to make their collection findable nationally while keeping their own collection management system. The larger the collection and the more often it changes, the more it delivers.
Museums
Objects and imagery.
Archives
Access points and records.
Libraries
Special collections.
Municipalities
Local collections.
Technology and integrations
This page is about connecting to the national network. For the procedures around the collection, see our page on Spectrum integration, for the system itself our page on collection registration and loan administration, and for archives our page on archive legislation software. You can read about our way of working on building software.
Why Appfront for your Digital Heritage Reference Architecture integration?
A collection that can only be found on your own website, an annual export that nobody maintains, or identifiers that are lost when you switch systems all cost an institution visibility and effort. That is what we build against: your data in the national network, with a permanent address per object, and your own system as the source.
Visible
In the national network.
Durable
Identification survives a switch.
No duplicate work
One registration, everywhere.
Security and privacy in a Digital Heritage Reference Architecture integration
Collection data is partly public and partly not: provenance details, insured values and donor information do not belong in a publication. The integration publishes only the fields you designate, and every publication is recorded with its time and content.
The integration runs in a European data centre, with encrypted connections. Access to your collection management system goes through a dedicated account with read-only permissions, so the integration can never change anything in your registration.
Frequently asked questions about a Digital Heritage Reference Architecture integration
Questions that collection managers and information managers ask before they get started.
The Digitaal Erfgoed Referentie Architectuur (DERA, the Dutch Digital Heritage Reference Architecture), a set of agreements from the Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed (Dutch Digital Heritage Network) on how heritage institutions make their collections digitally visible, usable and sustainable. It describes principles and building blocks, not software.
No. The integration runs alongside your system and translates what is in it into the DERA agreements. Your records stay where they are.
A fixed address for each object that keeps working, even if your website or your system changes. Others can link to it without the link breaking later.
Only the fields you choose. Internal data such as insured values, provenance details or donor information stays out of the publication.
As often as you like: daily, weekly or straight after a change. A change in your system then flows through to the network automatically.
Usually, yes. Whether your system has an API, an export function or only a database determines how we build the integration. We look at that in the first step.
For institutions whose collection changes regularly and needs to be findable nationwide. For a small, stable collection, a one-off export is sometimes enough.
Want to connect your collection to the national network?
Tell us which collection management system you use and what you want to publish. We'll show you how a DERA integration can handle it.