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Information and Data Policy Rijksmuseum

Summary​

The Rijksmuseum links individuals with art and history. Widely sharing information and data makes these links between people, art and history possible. The Rijksmuseum's Information & Data Policy is therefore intended to facilitate the sharing of information and data about our collections with as many people as possible.

The Rijksmuseum strives to make information and data about the collections findable, accessible, understandable and reusable. The information and data are as open as possible, and as closed as they need to be. This is to ensure that we comply with information and data protection legislation. With this policy we want to indicate that we will always try to share as much information and data as possible, even though not everything will be immediately public. We do this because the Rijksmuseum’s collections are for everyone.

About this document​

This document describes the policy on information and data management and the provision of information and data from and about the Rijksmuseum collections. It outlines the principles and guidelines for adequate information and data management within the Rijksmuseum. The document consists of three parts:

  1. a background, purpose and scope of the policy;
  2. definitions;
  3. the policy frameworks and principles.

The Rijksmuseum has endeavoured to draw up an integrated policy document that responds to the current information and data landscape. The Rijksmuseum is aware of the ongoing developments in this area and will address these developments in future versions of this policy. The Rijksmuseum welcomes feedback and suggestions at info@rijksmuseum.nl.

This policy document is published under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence. This document is also available in Dutch. If the Dutch and English texts contradict each other, the Dutch text shall prevail.

Creative Commons BY 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

1. Background, goal & scope​

1.1. Background​

The Rijksmuseum achieved worldwide fame in 2011/12 with a de facto open data policy, linked to the Rijksstudio collection website. The museum has since made all photos (in all variants, from high resolution to thumbnail) available of collection objects that are no longer subject to copyright as public property. The museum also does not claim copyright on associated metadata to these collection objects. In 2019, the Rijksmuseum's vision on information and data about the collections was further clarified on the website.

The museum wants to share an increasing amount of Information and Data due to ongoing digitisation of the collections and the rise of digital research. This Information and Data describes the museum’s collections, its organisation and related persons and subjects. In addition, the museum aims to integrate these sources and make them publicly discoverable and usable via open data services. This makes it necessary to change the existing de facto open data policy to be further concretised and expanded in this first formal Information and Data Policy.

1.2. Goal​

The Rijksmuseum aims to use this Information and Data Policy to make as much Information and Data from and about the collections as widely available as possible. The following applies: the Information and Data are as open as possible, and as closed as they need to be. This policy document describes how Information and Data are made available as open as possible, but also when there are restrictions on the access to and use of the Information and Data, and when the Information and Data are (temporarily) unavailable (to third parties).

1.3. Scope​

1.3.1. The policy applies to all Information and Data managed by the Rijksmuseum, as well as to Information and Data created by Researchers.

1.3.2. The policy focuses primarily on digital Information and Data and digitised material. The Rijksmuseum strives to store and make digital Information and Data available as much as possible.

1.3.3. Outside the scope of this policy are the Information and Data that:

  • if shared, could harm the safety of the collections, the buildings and persons or the company's interests of the Rijksmuseum;
  • may not be made public due to privacy legislation;
  • are contractually restricted in their reuse with third parties.

1.3.4. This Rijksmuseum Information and Data policy has been approved by the board of directors and has been in effect since 17th July 2024. It is valid until a new version is released.

2. Definitions​

Capitalised terms in this Information and Data Policy are defined here.

2.1. Research: all projects and activities of Researchers aimed at achieving scientific analysis or advice, regardless of whether these are expressed in or aimed at publications (or other forms of Research Results).

2.2. Researchers: employees, Rijksmuseum fellows and persons in another relationship with the Rijksmuseum who conduct Research into the museum's collections. This concerns employees who have a temporary or permanent employment contract with the museum, externally financed, unpaid and/or volunteer researchers who are hosted by the museum and researchers who conduct Research on behalf of the museum.

2.3. Research Results: the published results of Research in the form of, but not limited to, articles, datasets, Digital Media, Research software and Code.

2.4. Information and Data: all digital data collections that have been or will be recorded within the Rijksmuseum and that are derived from or substantively relate to the museum collections, the context in which they fit or the institution’s history. These can be structured and unstructured data collections.

More specifically, this definition includes:

  • Provenance Data and Archival Documents relating to the museum collections, the context in which they fit, or the institution’s history;
  • images and other Digital Media that depict collection objects or the institution’s history;
  • Documentation relating to the museum collections;
  • Metadata;
  • Research Data;
  • Research Software and Code.

2.5. Provenance Data: data about the ownership histories of objects managed by the Rijksmuseum from the moment of creation until their arrival at the museum, that are included as a record in a collection management system.

2.6. Archival Documents: process-related information that is produced or obtained during the execution of work processes within the Rijksmuseum and which is recorded and durably preserved for the purpose of business operations, the Rijksmuseum's accountability to society, and research into the institution’s history.

The Rijksmuseum distinguishes three types of archive:

  • dynamic archive: the phase in which the Archival Documents are in frequent administrative use. Archives of this type are stored and managed within the Rijksmuseum;
  • semi-static archive: the period following the dynamic archive. These Archival Documents are also stored and managed within the Rijksmuseum;
  • static archive: the period following the semi-static phase in which the Archival Documents are first processed and then transferred to the Noord-Hollands Archief.

2.7. Digital Media: any form of media content created, stored and distributed using digital technology, including images, audio, video and interactive elements, which are stored and described in a standardised and structured manner.

2.8. Documentation: a heterogeneous collection of (digital and digitised) documents that contain contextual information about a collection object, subject or person. This concerns documents produced by Rijksmuseum employees as well as by third parties.

2.9. Metadata: descriptive, contextual and administrative information that describes Information and Data. More specifically, this definition includes:

  • metadata related to objects: a standardised and structured description of the characteristics and context of each object managed by the Rijksmuseum;
  • bibliographic metadata: a standardised and structured description of the characteristics and context of publications.

2.10. Research Data: collections of raw and/or processed, systematically-recorded and structured data that have been collected, enriched, reused or created by Researchers during Research and that serve, among other things, as a source, guarantee and reference for the quality and reliability of Research Results.

3. Policy framework and principles​

3.1. This policy framework has been written in line with existing frameworks, including (but not limited to):

3.2. A general guiding principle is that every Rijksmuseum employee who works with Information and Data is expected to behave as a good steward of that Information and Data.

3.3. The Rijksmuseum does not distinguish user groups with regard to its Information and Data. All users, including commercial parties, have access to the same Information and Data under the same conditions.

3.4. When publishing Information and Data, the Rijksmuseum respects applicable rules regarding privacy, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

3.5. The Rijksmuseum wants to facilitate and encourage the reuse of its Information and Data wherever possible. The museum follows the FAIR Data Principles as much as possible, i.e. Information and Data are:

  • Findable: Information and Data can be found, preferably in a digital system. Where possible, persistent identifiers are used. (A persistent identifier (PI) is a permanent link and unique label to a digital object, regardless of its storage location. The unique label ensures that the digital object can be retrieved from the Internet at any time, even if the name of the digital object or its storage location changes.);
  • Accessible: Information and Data are stored and maintained in such a way that they can be easily accessed and downloaded. In addition, there are clear provisions regarding authorisation and use;
  • Interoperable: Information and Data are available in common formats, comply with standards and use standard vocabularies, so that the exchange and combination of this Information and Data with other information and data or metadata is optimally facilitated;
  • Reusable: Information and Data are described in a way that allows the reproduction of Research and/or the combination of the Information and Data with other information and data.

3.6. The Rijksmuseum endorses the right of indigenous peoples to self-government and control over their cultural heritage, which is embodied in their languages, knowledge, practices, cultural principles, technologies, natural resources and territories. For this reason, the Rijksmuseum strives to ensure that the Information and Data are as aligned as possible with the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance.

3.7. The Rijksmuseum applies the following principles regarding copyright and Information and Data licensing:

3.7.1. The Rijksmuseum provides Information and Data that are no longer, or have never been, protected by copyright with a Public Domain Mark (PDM) and/or the Creative Commons Zero 1.0 (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication.

3.7.2. If the Information and Data are protected by copyright and the Rijksmuseum is the rights holder, the Rijksmuseum will generally not exercise this right. The Rijksmuseum provides this Information and Data with the Creative Commons Zero 1.0 (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication. In such cases where the Rijksmuseum does choose to exercise its copyright on the Information and Data, the Rijksmuseum will provide this Information and Data with a Creative Commons BY 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence.

3.7.3. If the Information and Data are protected by copyright and this copyright belongs to a third party who has stated in writing to the Rijksmuseum that the Rijksmuseum may publish and reproduce the Information and Data without restrictions and attribution and may sublicense this right, the Rijksmuseum will provide this Information and Data with a Creative Commons Zero 1.0 (CC0 1.0) licence.

3.7.4. If the Information and Data are protected by copyright and this copyright belongs to a third party without that party having stated that it does not wish to exercise this right, the Rijksmuseum will not make this Information and Data available as open data.

3.7.5. Rights for reuse or publication of Information and Data will not be transferred to third parties, unless originally a condition for the provision of (financial) resources.

3.8. The Rijksmuseum considers it good practice to provide attribution and/or source citation via a credit line and data citation when reusing Information and Data made available by the museum, regardless of the licence under which the Information and Data have been made available.

3.9. Researchers at the Rijksmuseum will cite Information and Data from the museum when used in any publications, with a data citation, and will add a data availability statement to those publications.

3.10. When making Information and Data available the Rijksmuseum uses international standards where possible. It will also link to other information and data as much as possible to strengthen the context (the Rijksmuseum commits to using several international standards, amongst which are the ULAN (Union List of Artist Names), MARC21 format for Bibliographical data, BIBFRAME (Bibliographic Framework), Spectrum Collection Management standard, Linked Art, Dublin Core, The Europeana Data Model, LIDO (Lightweight Information Describing Objects), Z39.50, OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting), SRU (Search/Retrieve via URL), JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) and RDF (Resource Description Framework)).

3.11. The Rijksmuseum uses open formats that are not bound to a particular piece of software as much as possible.

3.12. Subject to the provisions of Article 3.7, an embargo period may be imposed on Information and Data arising from ongoing or recently completed Research conducted by Researchers, if this is in the interest of the Research and the Rijksmuseum's own use of the knowledge developed in the Research. The Rijksmuseum can apply an embargo period of a maximum of 5 years after completion of the Research project (exceptions to be determined by the Researcher's department head).

3.13. The Rijksmuseum distinguishes between two levels of accessibility with regard to Archival Documents, taking into account the provisions of Article 1.3.3:

  • Dynamic and semi-static archives are not accessible to third parties, unless in a specific interest endorsed by the Rijksmuseum.
  • Static archives are accessible, also to third parties.

3.14. The Rijksmuseum is authorised to make decisions about Information and Data to which the Rijksmuseum is the entitled party, insofar as these decisions do not conflict with existing agreements with Researchers or between Researchers and other rights holders.

3.15. The Rijksmuseum reserves the right not to publish Information and Data, to remove access to Information and Data and/or to make Information and Data deletion requests to others who store or republish Information and Data from the Rijksmuseum.

3.16. The Rijksmuseum wishes that artificial intelligence (AI) technology that uses the museum's Information and Data adheres to the Rijksmuseum's Information and Data Policy and the museum's core values. This means that this technology is transparent about, among other things, how and by whom these tools were developed, how the tools work and what biases are present in both the tools and the underlying data.

This policy document was written by Coen Wilders, Saskia Scheltjens and Maarten Heerlien. In addition, sincere thanks to Andrea Wallace, Bas Nederveen, Caroline Wittop Koning, Cathy Jager, Douglas McCarthy, Edward Anderson, Erik van Ginkel, Femke Diercks, Fricke Oosten, Jeroen Bosman, José van Dijck, Katrien Keune, Maarten Zeinstra, Marijke Smallegange, Mercia Kerkhof, Monique Rebers, Raymond de Jong, Rob Hendriks, Sarah Powell and Taco Dibbits. Their expertise, insights and critical perspectives have been invaluable in the development of this policy.