1. Summary

Research on digital archives includes wide range of topics such as data acquisition, organization, search, publication, and utilization. The target of research ranges from cultural heritage data to earth environmental data, and includes emergent and improvisational archives under crisis. In addition, we also work on Digital Humanities to establish methodologies for making digital archives of humanistic data.

2. Digital Silk Roads Project

The goal of the "Digital Silk Roads" Project is to propose a new approach to the preservation and utilization of cultural heritage originating in Silk Roads and other areas through the combination of information technology and cultural research and the provision of information infrastructure. This is an international project that consists of researchers from several countries. Specific research topics of the project is diverse, but I, in particular, focus on the following topics.

1. "Digital archive" of cultural resources aims at preserving digital cultural resources forever by digitization, and improving accessibility to digital cultural resources with a uniform architecture.
2. To realize the digital archive, we first create the database of metadata about the translation, annotation, and analysis of digital image archive.
3. Those metadata are not only static but also dynamic in the sense that anyone can add new information any time through the portal site of this digital image archive. That added information will be updated in the database instantly, so the frame of knowledge about cultural heritage will expand through the collaborative work of many people.
4. The searching functionality of the database is one of the key component of this project. The goal is to support researcher's professional work by the similarity-based retrieval of data, the summarization of data, and the comparison of data from the viewpoint of geography, history, and so on.
5. With the help of multilingual processing and Web technology, we aim to provide this information world-wide.

3. Demonstrations and Related Sites

• Digital Silk Roads - Digital Archives of Cultural Heritage
• Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

• Silk Roads From Space (Daytime)
• Silk Roads From Space (Nighttime)

4. Disaster Archives

The target of digital archives is not only limited to cultural heritage. If we pay attention to the fact that a museum is sometimes called as "memory institution," memory may be the most important target to keep for future generations. In this sense, "disaster" is also a very important target due to its huge impact on human society.

• Citadel of Bam, Iran: Keeping Memories to Get over the Earthquake
• Archives of 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (in Japanese)
• 311 Memories (in Japanese)
• Digital Typhoon
• Typhoon Memories (in Japanese)

5. References (Complete List)

1. Asanobu KITAMOTO, "Database of Weather Charts for Hundred Years: Construction of long-term data archives on weather charts created by Japan Meteorological Agency", Abstracts of Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU) Meeting 2016, No. MGI21-05, 2016-5 (in Japanese) [ Abstract ]
2. Asanobu KITAMOTO, "Strengthening Digital Archives - Methodology for Driving Continuous Improvement Starting from the Release", What is Digital Archive? - Theory and Practice, Makoto Okamoto, Yoshio Yanagi (Eds.), pp. 157-180, Bensei Shuppan, ISBN 978-4-585-20034-5, 2015-6 (in Japanese) [ Abstract ]
3. Asanobu KITAMOTO, "Senga: Analysis of participatory archives using the mathematical model of exhibition and its deployment in the museum", Proceedings of IPSJ SIG Computers and the Humanities Symposium 2014, pp. 9-16, 2014-12 (in Japanese) [ Abstract ] [ Paper ]
4. Yoko NISHIMURA, Asanobu KITAMOTO, "Information Infrastructure of Beijing Historical Space Using Google Earth and Complete Map of Peking, Qianlong Period", Proceedings of IPSJ SIG Computers and the Humanities Symposium 2008, pp. 81-88, 2008-12 (in Japanese) [ Abstract ] [ Paper ]
5. Kinji ONO, Asanobu KITAMOTO, Makiko ONISHI, Elham ANDAROODI, Yoko NISHIMURA, Mohammad Reza MATINI, "Memory of the Silk Road -The Digital Silk Road Project-", Proceedings of the Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia (VSMM08), Vol. Project Papers, pp. 437-444, 2008-10 [ Paper ]
6. Yoko NISHIMURA, Makiko ONISHI, Asanobu KITAMOTO, "Analysis of Silk Road Old Maps Using Google Earth", Proceedings of IPSJ SIG Computers and the Humanities Symposium 2007, pp. 155-162, 2007-12 (in Japanese) [ Abstract ] [ Paper ]
7. Makiko ONISHI, Asanobu KITAMOTO, Tomohiro IKEZAKI, Dominique DEUFF, Kinji ONO, "Establishment and Analysis of Paintings of Sixteen-Contemplation Database Using ASPICO as a Metadata Management System", Proceedings of IPSJ SIG Computers and the Humanities Symposium 2006, pp. 211-218, 2006-12 (in Japanese) [ Paper ]
8. Tomohiro IKEZAKI, Dominique DEUFF, Kinji ONO, Asanobu KITAMOTO, Makiko ONISHI, "Network-based Collaborative System for Digital Archives: ASPICO", 5th Forum on Information Technology, No. N-035, 2006-9 (in Japanese)
9. Asanobu KITAMOTO, Makiko ONISHI, Tomohiro IKEZAKI, Dominique DEUFF, Eka MEYER, Sonoko SATO, Takako MURAMATSU, Ryo KAMIDA, Takeo YAMAMOTO, Kinji ONO, "Digital Bleaching and Content Extraction for the Digital Archive of Rare Books", Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Document Image Analysis for Libraries (DIAL), pp. 133-144, doi:10.1109/DIAL.2006.15, 2006-4 [ Abstract ]
10. Asanobu KITAMOTO, Makiko ONISHI, Tomohiro IKEZAKI, Takako MURAMATSU, Dominique DEUFF, Eka MEYER, Sonoko SATO, Elham ANDAROODI, Takeo YAMAMOTO, Kinji ONO, "Digital Silk Roads: A Digital Archive for Linking the Variety of Cultural Heritages", Proceedings of IPSJ SIG Computers and the Humanities Symposium 2005, pp. 121-128, 2005-12 (in Japanese) [ Abstract ] [ Paper ]
11. Kinji ONO, Takeo YAMAMOTO, Toshiro KAMIUCHI, Frederic ANDRES, Asanobu KITAMOTO, Sonoko SATO, Elham ANDAROODI, "Progress of the Digital Silk Roads Project", Progress in Informatics, No. 1, pp. 93-141, 2005-3 [ Abstract ] [ Paper ] [ Paper ]
12. Asanobu KITAMOTO, Takeo YAMAMOTO, Sonoko SATO, Nigel COLLIER, Ai KAWAZOE, Kinji ONO, "Text Readability and Coreference Annotation across Heterogeneous Media for the Digital Archive of Rare Books", The Journal of the Institute of Image Electronics Engineers of Japan, Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 737-745, doi:10.11371/iieej.33.737, 2004-9 (in Japanese) [ Abstract ]
13. Asanobu KITAMOTO, "Digitization of Rare Books and Documents", JSPS Asian Science Seminar (JASS04): Advanced Digital Technology-Assisted Cultural Archive and Preservation Along the Maritime Silk Roads, 2004-7 [ Abstract ]
14. Asanobu KITAMOTO, Sonoko SATO, Takeo YAMAMOTO, Kinji ONO, "Context Recombination for Digital Cultural Archives", Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Archive Technologies (ICDAT2004), pp. 105-119, 2004-3 [ Abstract ] [ Paper ]
15. Asanobu KITAMOTO, Takeo YAMAMOTO, Sonoko SATO, Kinji ONO, "Reformulation of Contexts: A Design Concept for the Database of DSR Archive", Proceedings of the Nara Symposium for Digital Silk Roads, pp. 319-330, 2003-12 [ Abstract ] [ Paper ]
16. Asanobu KITAMOTO, Eric PLATON, Frederic ANDRES, Takeo YAMAMOTO, "NII Portal Sites for the Digital Silk Roads Project", Proceedings of the Nara Symposium for Digital Silk Roads, pp. 467-473, 2003-12 [ Abstract ] [ Paper ]
17. Asanobu KITAMOTO, "Context Recombination Engine (CORE): A Design Concept for Digital Archives", Workshop on Digital Libraries for Cultural Preservation, 2003-10
18. Asanobu KITAMOTO, "Open Annotation for Cultural Resources", A seminar on Metadata Mediated Browsing and Retrieval in Semantic Rich Image Collection, 2003-3

6. Related Metadata

The following is the collection of metadata standards related to the digital archive.

• Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

  Interoperable online metadata standards.

  http://www.dublincore.org/

• MARC Standards

  MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) is a metadata standard for bibliographic information. A related standard is Z39.50.

  http://www.loc.gov/marc/

• Getty Standards and Digital Resource Management

  Metadata for digital resources from Getty foudation. Categories for the works of art and architectual drawings, and large-scale vocabularies for art and architecture (AAT), artist names (ULAN), and geographic names (TGN) are available.

  http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/

• Text Encoding Initiative

  A metadata standard for all kinds of literacy and linguistic texts.

  http://www.tei-c.org/

• Iconclass Official Home Page, copyright KNAW

  A subject specific international classification system for iconographic research and the documentation of images.

  http://www.iconclass.nl/

• Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS)

  The METS schema is a standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and strucural metadata regarding objects within a digital library.

  http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/

• CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model

  The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) provides definitions and a formal structure for describing the implicit and explicit concepts and relationships used in cultural heritage documentation.

  http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/

• CIMI Consortium

  Metadata for museums.

  http://www.cimi.org/

• Digital Library Federation

  Metadata for digital libraries.

  http://www.diglib.org/

• GILS (Global Information Locator Service)

  Metadata for searching information.

  http://www.gils.net/

• Federal Geographic Data Committee

  Metadata for geographic information.

  http://www.fgdc.gov/

• International Council on Archives

  Metadata defined by archivists. General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G) and so on.

  http://www.ica.org/

• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

  Metadata defined by archivists.

  http://www.loc.gov/ead/

• Metadata for Images in XML Standard (MIX)

  The metadata Z39.87 mainly about the image capture and encoding of still images, and its XML schema.

  http://www.loc.gov/standards/mix/

• I3A Standards - Initiatives - DIG35

  Metadata standards of images established by major companies.

  http://www.i3a.org/i_dig35.html

• LC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II (TGM II)

  Thesaurus for graphic materials with more than 600 terms.

  http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm2/

• Visual Resources Association

  Metadata for image management.

  http://www.vraweb.org/

• Art Museum Image Consortium

  The multimedia collection of art.

  http://www.amico.org/

• Object ID: an international standard for describing art

  The description of cultural objects for preventing art theft.

  http://www.object-id.com/