On Digital Archives for sharing cultural resources

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On Digital Archives for sharing cultural resources

• KUBO, Masatoshi
• Professor, Research Center for Cultural
  Resources,
• National Museum of Ethnology (NME)

kubom_at_idc.minpaku.ac.jp
2006/01/23
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The general functions of the National Museum of
Ethnology (NME)(1) Ethnological and
anthropological research(2) Collection,
conservation of ethnographical materials
and information(3) Public Exhibition
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Storage for Artifacts
 
about 260,000 artifacts
 
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Storage for Audio Visual Materials
 
about 70,000 materials
Movable Shelves in Room with 18-degree C.
Original Negative Film in Special Cool Room with
12-degree C.
 
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Exhibit Hall
 
10,000 artifacts are exhibited in about 10,000 m2
 
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Question about Ethnographical Materials
Management
1) Is it a true assumption that the
ethnographical materials described or collected
by a researcher is objective? 2) Could the
relation between the described-side and
describing-side be viewed with symmetry? The
latter is sometimes dominant over the former in
political, economic, and even cultural phases. 3)
Are the ethnographical materials collected and
described by the dominant side sometimes
exclusively possessed by that side, not to
mention "cultural deprivation"?
Answer to above question seems to(1) renaming of
ethnographical materials(2) introduction of
forum-type collaboration
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Renaming Ethnographical Materials to Cultural
Resources
Term ethnography implies that materials are
viewed from describing-side only.
On the other hand Term cultural resources
implies 1) They are primarily owned by site
people 2) They are resources for understanding
own culture as well as other culture
3) They are also a kind of global commons
- toward treasury of human wisdom
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Coverage of Cultural Resources
In Context of UNESCO
Resources visible or easy to become visible
TCH (Tangible Cultural Heritage)
instruments, objects, artifacts, cultural
spaces

• - visible products from cultural heritage
• to daily necessities
• documents of tangible and intangible
• cultural heritage represented by text,
• image, moving image, sound, etc.-
  secondary documents
• - tertiary documents

Immovable CH sites, landscape, etc.
Invisible embodied resources
Invisible system-like resources
ICH (Intangible Cultural Heritage)

• - oral traditions and expressions
• - performing arts
• social practices, rituals, festive
• events
• - knowledge and practices
• - traditional craftsmanship

• - human-network
• - organization
• - institution
• concept of
• intellectual properties
• etc.

- knowledge - skill - technique - know-how
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Key Points about Cultural Resources

• Cultural resources are alive and inherently
  changeful,
• should not be taken as frozen.
• Cultural resources covers not only outstanding
  masterpieces,
• but also everything relating to daily and
  ordinary life.
• The concept of authenticity should be
  excluded.
• Every cultural group has the rights to
  revive, modify,
• recreate, merge existing resources,
• if it provides them with a sense of
  identity and continuity.
• Ownership of the resources must be respected.
• When managing them, owners must be involved
  as equal-
• partners, based on predefined codes of
  ethics.

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Key Issue forManaging Cultural Resources

• (1) Needs of literacy in cultural resources
  management
• (2) Needs of archivists specializing in each
  specific area
• (3) Sustainable conservation and use of cultural
  resources
• One solution is digitizing, but eternal
  data migration
• will be necessary to follow up the rapid
  change of
• both data format and storage media.
• (4) Balance between protection of various rights
  of
• resources and sharing of them.
• pro-patent vs. public-domain
• consideration on non-Western concept
  of rights
• culturally defined
  intellectual properties
• (5) Balance between cost and performance
• true multi media

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Key Issue forCulturally Defined Intellectual
Properties

• (1) collective rights, custodianship
• (2) specific profile rights
• ex. Australian Aboriginal culture prohibits
  exposing faces of the deceased person
• (3) access to sacred/secret cultural resources
• access must be limited, with the consent of
  relevant cultural owners
• (4) problem of repatriation

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Discussion On Commons

• Western World

pro-patent pro-IP (Intellectual Properties)
anti-patent, anti-IP movements commons
ex. creative commons
Non-Western World
pro-patent, pro-IP for claiming rights,
identity, etc.
culturally defined intellectual properties ex.
cultural moral rights
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About Repatriation

• Probable Solutions
• (1) Where cultural ownership can be established,
  and those institutions can demonstrate their
  ability to preserve and maintain the items, the
  resource must be repatriated.
• (2) Where preservation and maintenance of
  resources at the owner society is difficult,
  ownership and information or copy is repatriated,
  while original resources themselves will be
  maintained at the proper institutes or museums.
• Based on the negotiation, information can be
  shared between owner and keeper organization.
• Virtual Repatriation

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Proposal Introduction of Forum-Type
Collaboration in the Cultural Resources Management

• Establishing forum for sharing cultural resources
  among
• cultural owners, researchers and users
  including web/museum visitors, that has the
  following effects
• (1) Shift from exclusive control by specialists
  to sharing and joint works
• (2) Change of research ethics
• (3) Upgrading information through sharing
• (4) Cultural restoration at the sites
• (5) Shift from construction of intellectual
  databases to discovery of human wisdom
• (6) The effects of fusion of the humanities and
  natural sciences

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Flow of Cultural Resources Management
Headwaters Upper Stream Mid
Stream Lower Stream
Investigation Collection of Materials
Conservation and Keeping
Put to Public Use
Put to Academic Use
Documentation Computerization


Social and International Collaboration
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Flow of Cultural Resources Management and
Forum-Type Collaboration
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Examples of forum-type database/archives
project we were/are concerned

• (1) Collaboration of Japanese museums and art
  galleries
• (2) Making and sharing of ethnographical videos
  between NME and museums in Southeast Asia
• (3) MEF (Multimedia Educational Forum) with
  school teachers in Osaka Prefecture
• (4) Creation of cultural macro-micro time-space
  map for investigating Eco-History of Southeast
  Asia
• (5) Museum-network for sharing ethnological
  archival collection between Laos and Japan

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Concept of MEF (Multimedia Educational Forum)

• MEF is a NPO composed of high-school teachers,
  researchers,
• computer venders, etc. in Osaka
  Prefecture.
• Registered member can upload digital teaching
  materials to the
• forum, namely digital archives.
• School teachers can download any set of digital
  materials to form
• their own digital teaching contents.
• Experiences are shared through this forum.
• MEF acts as a consultant on Intellectual
  Properties of digital
• materials.
• MEF also supports to form and expand
  human-network among
• school teachers.

MEF
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Proposal Establishing worldwide forum
collaboration for sharing cultural resources
Regional forum
Global forum
Regional forum
Hub information center databases/archives
services clearinghouse services supporting
services
Regional forum
Local museums, institutions, etc.
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Requirements for the database/archives that
enables forum-type collaboration

• Mechanism for harvesting or cross-search among
  various types of databases/archives
• (2) Mechanism for registered member to add to or
  modify existing information
• (3) Ensuring individual rights and responsibility
• (4) Protection of intellectual properties
• including culturally defined ones.

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Centralized passive clearinghouse
Web Browser or IR-client
Web Browser or IR-client
?
?
Client-Side
Server-Side
Clearinghouse
?
?
Directory of Indices and Part of data records
?
?
Database 2-1
Database 2-2
Database 1-1
Database 1-2
Institute-2
Institute-1
? Offer common indices and part of data records ?
Retrieval of candidate data ? Retrieval of
detailed information
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Centralized active clearinghouse
Web Browser or IR-client
Web Browser or IR-client
Client-Side
?
?
Clearinghouse
Server-Side
Search Engine
Indices and part of data
Harvesting Engine
?
?
Database 2-1
Database 2-2
Database 1-1
Database 1-2
Institute-2
Institute-1
? Harvest data items for constructing directory ?
Retrieval of data records
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Decentralized Cross-search System
Web Browser or IR-client
Web Browser or IR-client
Client-Side
Server-Side
Accessing by standard protocol
Cross-search Gate Way
Cross-search Gate Way
Server for standard protocol
Server for standard protocol
Server for standard protocol
Server for standard protocol
Metadata representation
Metadata representation
Metadata representation
Metadata representation
Database 2-1
Database 2-2
Database 1-1
Database 1-2
Institute-2
Institute-1
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Experimental decentralized cross-search
system conducted by National Institute
of Japanese Literature
Participating Institutes National Institute
of Japanese Literature National Museum of
Japanese History Historiographical
Institute, University of Tokyo Center for
Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University
International Research Center for Japanese
Studies National Institute of Informatics
National Museum of Ethnology Present
Activity Study of effectiveness of Z39.50
Feasibility study of protocol other than Z39.50
like OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative
Protocol for Metadata
Harvesting) SOAP (Simple Object Access
Protocol) Study of constructing thesaurus
for terms, place-names, era-names,
etc.
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System Configuration of MARS (Multi Archives
Retrieval System)