Mr. Peter Scholing from the National Library of Aruba and the driving force behind Coleccion.aw, was named the ‘Caribbean Information Professional of the Year’ during the 53rd Acuril conference held in Guyana.
Acuril is an association of libraries, museums, and archives in the Caribbean region. During their annual conference, a special recognition is given to an information specialist for their excellence in their work. This time, Mr. Peter Scholing from Aruba received this honor and recognition from Acuril for his pioneering work in establishing “Coleccion Aruba”, a unique platform in our region.
Thanks to the pioneering work of Mr. Peter Scholing, the Coleccion Aruba platform, available at coleccion.aw, was created. This innovation in culture in Aruba is the result of a close collaboration between 11 institutions containing information about Aruba’s history and culture. This collaboration became possible when, at the National Library of Aruba, Mr. Scholing began digitizing the library’s collection, gradually making this information accessible via their website and also via Archive.org, a digital archive that provides universal access to information. Subsequently, close collaborations followed with the first partners: the National Archives of Aruba, UNOCA, the National Archaeological Museum of Aruba, the Monuments Fund Foundation of Aruba, and Plantage Zorg en Hoop. In this way, the Coleccion Aruba platform grew to become the largest digital archive with information about Aruba in Papiamento.
Besides being part of the Coleccion Aruba platform, Mr. Peter Scholing represents Aruba as the President of Memory of the World for Latin America and the Caribbean (MOWLAC), which is a United Nations program to preserve the history of countries as the memory of our world. Mr. Scholing is also a member of the National Commission of UNESCO in Aruba.
