国 文 研
National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

Workshop on Japanese old andrare books in HNL2017
Feb. 17, 2017

Future of the Network for Research
on Japanese Classical Books
National Institute of Japanese Literature
Research Department
Associate Professor

Junko Koyama（presenter）
prepared by Center for Collaborative Research on Pre-modern Texts,
National Institute of Japanese Literature国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

1. Current situation of the projectN I J L ■ Project for advancing the frontiers of large-scale academic research efforts

Project to Build an International Collaborative Research
Network for Pre-modern Japanese Texts■Term: 2014-2023■Goals:(1) To make publically available on the internet a collectionof 300,000 digitized Japanese classic books from various
fields, along with their bibliographies (71,000 books will be
digitized by March 2016).

(2) To promote collaborative international research projects throughthe use of digitized materials.

(3) To build networks for collaborative international research.

A new public image viewing
system starts in April, 2017.

国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

２. Collaborative institutions
20 universities
Foreign institutions

National Institutefor the Humanities

・National Museum of Japanese History
・National Institute of Japanese Languagewith collaborative agreements

国 文 研

NIJLand Linguistics
・International Research Center forJapanese Studies

Other institutions

Digitization of classic books in other institutions
Cooperation in building databasesby the National Institute of Informatics.

Collège de FranceKorea University
University of Florence
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Leiden University
University of Venice
University of Naples
Sapienza University of Rome
Vatican Apostolic Library
University of Cambridge

University of British Columbia
Columbia University
C. V. Starr East Asian Library atUniversity of California

Collaborative efforts will be strengthened
and broadened as this project progresses

国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

３.Two points of view for classic studies■How to read a classic
Training indeciphering
cursive scripts

Confirming
the meaningof words

Developing
programs tohelp decipher
cursive scripts

SMART-GSThe Hentaigana App

Classical Books
OCRKuLA■How to gather intelligence data for the study

NIJL

Portal site of
the imageImprovementof searchfunctions

Stablesearch
results

User-friendly search

Tagging

Embedding DOI

Cross-searching

TEI-conformant texts＋ Tool development support：
Open Data Ideathon・hackathon

４．Portal site of Classical Books

国 文 研
National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

Improvement of information and image availability

Not individually but comprehensively
Cross-searching

via NIJL’s authorized-management site, not through individual sites.

encouraging unexpected findings

NIJL (Platform for Japanese classics)
PartnerPartnerPartnerPartnerandothers

国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

5. The reason why NIJL has taken on this project《To arrive at necessary information》■Each library has developed a catalog of its collection ofclassic books.
■ NIJL has authorized management regarding thecatalogs and micro films of classic books.

NIJL

Advantage of NIJL:
authorized managementof classics【Renewed URL of Integrated Catalogue of
Early Japanese Books】

http://base1.nijl.ac.jp/~tkoten/

A unique title of a work
Iwashimizu monogatari
正三位物語
Sho sanmi monogatari

岩清水Iwashimizu

石清水物語
Iwashimizu monogatari■NIJL has been developing a comprehensive bibliographical database ofJapanese classics, which includes the ”Integrated Catalogue of Pre-modern
Japanese Books” , an index of classic books from all fields.

国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

６. Improved search functions①
Addition of tags to individual images

click

Developing a tagging tool on the Web

国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

７. Improved search functions②Social tagging will commence in April,2017 (initially by researchers)国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

８. Improved search functions③９. Improved search functions④

国 文 研
National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL■Reduced labor for reprinting classical Japanese books

http://doi.org/10.1241/johokanri.58.819〓 A character which the software
was unable to decode◯ A character which the software
decoded incorrectly■Efficient transcription ofnecessary books■TEI-conformant texts
are currently underconsideration.

click

国 文 研10. Consistent search results

DOINational Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

Embedding digital object identifiers (DOI) into each
digitalized image of a classical book, and recommendation tocite the DOIs in academic papers.
This makes it easy for readers to refer back to digital
images of books referred to in academic papers.
This process was very difficult in previous research.
⇒ Research should be verifiable.

Toward verifiable humanities
ex.

NDL■Most work in the humanities has depended on drawing
upon fragments and citations of other researchers.
However, we must now work to verify these fragments forourselves.

11. Towards the development of new frontiers via unexpected findings

国 文 研
National Institute ofJapanese Literature

Azuma-kagami

Digitized images

NIJLEx.

Search for theword "aurora"
Search functions
mentioned above
The Database

Tags

Finding something
significant in
unexpected books
Enkouan zuikan zue…

We aim to promote
original research via
extraction of various
information from thedatabase.

国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

12. Encouraging further interaction withJapanese classic books■To encourage public engagement
Published digitized images and bibliographic
information under CC BY-SA: available foreveryone.
【NIJL】As an experiment, 350 digitized classic books have been
made public under CC BY-SA to promote open data searching.
(In the near future, much more of NIJL‘s collection will bepublished.))

http://www.nijl.ac.jp/pages/cijproject/data_set_list.html■From Ideathon to Hackathon
An ideathon was held
by NIJL in Kyoto

Developing an idea suggested in the ideathon方。

国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

13. Encouraging further interaction withJapanese classic books
To encourage utilization not only byresearchers but also by the public

Suggested search
IIIF（International Image Interoperability Framework）
D3.js（Data-Driven Documents） etc.…

A user-friendly viewer for open data searches
has been released by Dr. Nagasaki
http://www2.dhii.jp/nijl_opendata/openimages.php

国 文 研National Institute ofJapanese Literature

NIJL

Wrap up: Goals of the project（１）Promote integrated searching and collaboration
as a platform for further research（２）Encourage various institutions to engage in thissharing of information※Assisting, collaborating with, and forming frameworks forvarious projects※Supporting sustainability of their results

To encourage interaction with Japanese classic
books in mutually beneficial relationships
The project
Researchresults

International
collaboration

Institutional
relationships