The Dutch Network of War Collections (Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen) has won a prestigious GLAMi Award with its WarLives.org website. This is one of the most important international prizes in the field of heritage and innovation. The Award is presented every year during the MuseWeb Conference in the United States. In other categories, winners included the Smithsonian Institution and The Getty.

With 800 participants from 40 countries, MuseWeb is the largest museum innovation and technology conference in the world. This community of leading professionals has been meeting since 1997 and each year it recognises the best innovations in cultural heritage by way of the GLAMi Awards. The event is sponsored by Microsoft and Google Arts & Culture, and this year it was held online due to coronavirus measures. 

Warlives.org won in the category ‘Exhibition or Collection Extension: Web’, for digital applications that enrich collections beyond the physical walls of cultural institutions. The Rijksmuseum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others, were nominated in the same category.

Warlives.org

Warlives.org is the starting point for research on the personal histories of eyewitnesses during World War II. The lives of some 300,000 witnesses of war have now been reconstructed from 2.5 million name citations from the collections and databases of nearly 30 participants of the Dutch Network of War Collections. Warlives.org is constantly developing and presents the lives of individuals in a clear manner by means of timelines. Further research is made easier by referring visitors to available sources.

For more info see Warlives.org.

Warlives.org was developed by the Dutch Network of War Collections (a network of more than 100 collaborating organisations) together with partners. Warlives.org was set up with support from its main sponsor, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, and with the help of contributions from the vfonds (National Foundation of Peace, Freedom and Veteran Support) and the Mondriaan Fund. The technology that links information from different available name databases was developed by Spinque and the Dutch Network of War Collections. The website Warlives.org was designed and built by Driebit.