Drs. Edwin Klijn, Project Manager, at the Institute for
War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam,
the Netherlands
Edwin Klijn specializes in electronic publishing, digitalization, web development, automated text recognition, linked data, project management, and the NSB (National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands).
He has published on mass digitization, image banks and the preservation and digitization of photo and audiovisual collections. In addition, he wrote in a personal capacity, together with Robin te Slaa, De NSB. Origin and rise of the National Socialist Movement 1931-1935 (Amsterdam 2009) nominated for the Libris History Prize 2010. The follow-up of this publication will be published in the spring of 2021.
Edwin’s recent projects include: TRIADO, Tribunal Archives as Digital Research Facilities; and War Lives winner of GLAMi Awards 2020 in category: Exhibition or Collection Extension: Web; see for jury report.
For years the raw materials for historians have been analogue collections hidden in vaults of archival institutions. Digitization, linked data and artificial intelligence technology have revolutionized the accessibility of cultural heritage collections, radically changing the work methods of historians. Edwin has been involved in digitization of heritage collections since 2001. He is interested in highlighting some of the new opportunities, but also the challenges of opening up historical collections online for scholars and the general public.