question: Heritage institutions are exploring new ways to open up their digital collections. In this context, the KB, national library of the Netherlands, has built a data-driven demonstration website based on historical newspapers. This website centers around a currently relevant topic due to the Covid-19 crisis: pandemics. A Toolbox with Notebooks and a sample data set is provided to support students and starting researchers. This paper describes the data selection process, the functionality of the website and corresponding Toolbox, as well as the initial reception. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.