Flemish heritage is getting a major digital upgrade. meemoo, the organization behind this transformation, has launched a powerful new collection management system to manage and showcase collections across Flanders. By replacing two outdated platforms with one user-friendly solution, meemoo is helping over 1,000 institutions take control of their data. Whether it’s museums, archives, or smaller cultural institutions, everyone now benefits from smarter tools, smoother workflows, and secure access. Here’s how the journey unfolded—and what’s coming next in 2025.
meemoo: Making Flemish Heritage More Accessible
meemoo, Flemish Institute for Archives, is a non-profit organisation committed to bringing the past to life and preparing it for the future. They achieve this by digitising and archiving cultural, media, and government heritage materials. With also the heritage database, meemoo supports the broad heritage sector with the daily care of their heritage collections. Besides, meemoo makes their partners’ archival content accessible and usable for everyone through several online platforms. Furthermore, meemoo actively shares their expertise with other organisations. Learn more about their mission.
A New Era for Collection Management in Flanders
In 2023, meemoo advanced significantly by launching a tender for a unified collections management and online solution, an initiative started in 2018 with the Flemish Department of Culture, Youth, and Media. The goal: merge legacy systems (Erfgoedplus and Erfgoedinzicht), migrate thousands of heritage objects, and implement complex access and permission controls.
Following a rigorous selection process, MuseumPlus by zetcom was chosen for its:
✅ User-friendly interface and features
✅ Comprehensive support for museums processes
✅ Secure and reliable data management
Learn more about meemoo’s decision: Learn more about the reasons
The Official Launch: March 2025
As of March 2025, the new community solution is live, with over 380.000 objects successfully migrated into the centrally managed system. This major milestone supports hundreds of institutions, including religious archives, image libraries, and local heritage organisations, now benefiting from streamlined data management and secure access controls. And the momentum continues: zetcom and meemoo are currently preparing for the migration of the second of the two initial platforms, including the collections of several larger museums.
Advancing Data Management and Accessibility
As part of the data migration to MuseumPlus, supporting the Belgian Invulboeken definitions was a key requirement. These guidelines ensure proper application of SPECTRUM procedures and field definitions, making the transition from legacy systems seamless. Beyond standardizing data, the challenge lay in migrating all records while preserving their permissions and associated rights – a crucial step in maintaining accessibility and security.
Another milestone was the implementation of ARK PIDs (persistent identifiers). These permanent digital identifiers ensure that records and digital objects remain uniquely traceable and accessible over time.
Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) are essential for ensuring long-term access, discoverability, and citation of digital resources. By providing a stable, unchanging reference to digital objects – regardless of changes in their location or metadata – PIDs support data integrity, facilitate reliable linking, and enable efficient management of digital assets across systems.
What’s Next in 2025?
This year brings exciting developments, including:
🚀 eMuseumPlus – Making Flemish cultural heritage publicly accessible through eMuseumPlus
🏺 Immaterial Heritage – Supporting specialized workflows for Immaterial Heritage collections
🔗 Third-party integrations – Expanding connectivity with middleware and external systems
🗄️ Data Migrations – Guiding additional organisations and collections into the heritage database
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue enhancing access to Flemish cultural heritage!
