A Progress on the Digital Collections of Local History at the Public Libraries and Other Memory Institutions in Japan

Abstract

The academic library in Japan started up a service of digital collections on their websites before the public library did. The service for digital collections in public library started with the class of prefectural library which is a main library in each prefecture in the mid-2000s. During the ensuing decade, most prefectural libraries currently provide the service for digital collections on their websites. Since the city, town and village libraries and other memory institutions are relatively small size, if these libraries and institutions begin to start the service for digital collections individually, the service might not start lightly. The ADEAC (A system of Digitalization and Exhibition for Archive Collections) as a cloud platform system for digital collections started in 2013. The relatively small size public libraries such as city, town and village library and other memory institutions had come to provide the service for digital collections on the platform of ADEAC. The ADEAC has a lot of view and search functions for the digital collections of local history, such as full-text search capability, high-resolution image, 3D image. This paper introduces the current state about the digital collections of local history at public libraries and other memory institutions in Japan and describes about the unique features of ADEAC for viewing and searching the digital collections of local history, and then discusses the future directions about the digital collections of local history at public libraries and other memory institutions.