The government will integrate the databases that libraries and museums are separately operating at present, and create a website to enable the consolidated search of various catalogs and locations online.
The project is aimed at boosting research activities and creating new business opportunities by allowing people to find intellectual resources such as books and cultural properties more easily. The government will begin testing the envisaged website in January or February next year, aiming for full-fledged operations in 2020.
The website is tentatively being called "Japan Search." Under the initiative of the Cabinet Office, the website will be launched by integrating more than 10 databases including those of the National Diet Library, the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, which runs national museums, the National Archives of Japan, the Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art, and the public interest incorporated foundation Broadcast Programming Center of Japan.
The government will call for universities and museums across the nation to participate in the project.
If someone wants to gather information about an old document, at present it is necessary to search the database of various facilities to find the information. However, if Japan Search was available, it would be possible to easily look on one site for a wide variety of items, ranging across books, official documents, cultural assets and broadcast programs.
The website will provide information about books and collections, such as their titles, relevant dates, author lists and ownership. Information on more than several million items is expected to be listed on the website. There also is a plan to show digitized photographs and other materials on the site.
It is expected that shedding light on materials that would otherwise be forgotten will lead to progress in research on topics including past disasters and more effective anti-disaster measures. The government plans to allow private companies to use the website, in expectation of giving them opportunities to develop new products and services, according to a source close to the Cabinet Office.
As for procedures for the secondary use of material, procedures will be completed on the websites of relevant facilities, and the government plans to simplify the process as much as possible.
After the launch of the integrated website, the government hopes to accelerate electronic preservation, or digitization, of official documents. Of documents managed by the National Archives of Japan, less than 20 percent have been digitally archived in a form that can be viewed online.
Old documents and cultural properties deteriorate over time, and can be damaged or lost when being exhibited. How to preserve such items is therefore an important issue.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
