Due to its engaged history with publishing and scholarship, the Netherlands produces many - often related - digital catalogs and databases that cover Dutch printing and research in a variety of formats and subjects. This page provides an overview of some of the largest catalogs, which often are comprised of many smaller ones. Many of these resources have an English-language version of their websites available, but the Google Chrome browser will also translate pages as well, if English is not already available. Due to a national trend toward accessibility, many of these resources offer substantial information open access. To read about the country's mission to have all research publications open access by 2020, read this roadmap.
Memory of the Netherlands is an image database of Dutch heritage collections, including paintings, drawings, stamps, posters, maps, and photographs from Dutch museums, archives, and libraries. These images are all open to browse and search by subject. The website was created and maintained by the Dutch National Library. Each image includes its source information and information about its copyright/usability.
The National Library of the Netherlands contains copious primary and secondary resources, including its catalog of books, journals, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, and sheet music. The catalog interface is the same one used for the contemporary national bibliography. See that tab for instructions on searching.
The Koninklijke Bibliotheek also provides a description of what materials are available at the library, as well as a list of digital humanities resources.
From 2000-2015, the National Library of the Netherlands published its national bibliography online through its "Out Now" platform. The A list is weekly and contains the titles of new books, magazines, yearbooks, and electronic publications across a variety of subjects, both fiction and nonfiction. The B list is monthly and contain the titles of new publications of governing bodies, scientific institutions, and other academic writings. The C list is also monthly and contains other miscellaneous publications published in the Netherlands.
These lists are in Dutch and are alphabetical first by the author's last name, then by the work's title. Each entry may include the following information: author, title, translation (if applicable), edition, publisher, location of publication, date of publication, page number, and size (in cm), price, ISBN number.
Out Now was discontinued in 2015 when the existing bibliographic records were combined with forthcoming titles into a searchable database. See the "Contemporary National Bibliography" tab for more information about using this database.
The Meertens Institute documents Dutch language and culture and has a large collection of related databases. These include several Dutch name and dialect databases, the Database of Language and Culture Maps, a Dutch folksong database, and databases about Dutch migration and pilgrimmage, among others. The institute also allows researchers to deposit their own data projects and collections and has information about several current ongoing projects. These materials are all open access.
Delpher is an open access collection of digitized newspapers, books, magazines, and radio bulletins. This is the first major digital collection and database for Dutch newspapers, and there are currently more than 1.3 million newspapers recorded. In addition to general and advanced searches on the home page, Delpher also has instructions for searching for a particular item format, as well as an interactive timeline for tracking newspaper activity since the 1600s. The list of available newspapers includes the titles and publication dates of hundreds of newspaper titles.
The National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System (NARCIS) is a database containing largely information about academic researchers, but also for educational and government institutions. NARCIS contains open access publications from all of the Dutch university repositories, as well as several other scientific institutions. Resources include datasets, academic and institutional profiles, and academic publications. Results can be searched and filtered by item type, accessibility, and source (institution), among other factors. There is also a page with search suggestions and explanations. This website is an especially effective resource for thesis and dissertation searching across the Dutch Universities, or for navigating to their individual repositories.