On Monday, 21 February 2022, students from the Master Non Linear Narrative and the Bachelor Interactive / Media / Design departments of the Royal Academy of Art visited the National Library of The Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek). This day we organized a kick-off for a semester-long collaboration, during which students will research the library’s comprehensive catalogue of alba amicorum (friendship books) with a view to making these resources accessible to a wider audience (like e.g. other makers, creative users). These projects are a follow-up to the project with the KABK’s IAFD department.
The kick-off started on site, with presentations by several restoration experts. These talks were followed by a guided tour of the library’s large-scale storage depot. The program was completed by talks on user accessibility within an open digital context. In order to understand the significance of the alba amicorum collection and gain insight into how archives can function as a source of inspiration for new cultural creativity, students attended presentations by Rianne Koning, Coordinator Public Programming, Jeroen Vandommele, Curator Modern Manuscripts, Sophie Reinders, Assistant Professor at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen and Dick van Dijk, Creative Director at Waag Society.
[Photo credits: Roel Backaert]
