Tags: Japanese colonial period | rare books

The collection features all kinds of publications released by the authorities or by private publishers during the Japanese colonial period. The archived documentation includes books, periodicals, newspapers, and official communiqués, usually referred to as “Japanese Rare Books.” A majority of these publications were obtained from the former library of the Office of the Taiwan Governor-General, the South Archive, or those purchased from Taipei Imperial University’s professors returning to Japan after World War II. The collections, consisting of some 100,000 volumes, are now conjointly archived by the Institute of Taiwan History of the Academia Sinica and National Taiwan Library; most of them are the only copy in existence. The Institute of Taiwan History is now completing the collections’ bibliographic description and digitization, based on subjects and the principle of value-adding and enrichment. In addition, the institute provides a search service by offering access to the Database of Rare Books in the Japanese Colonial Period for Taiwanese Studies.

Institute of Taiwan History, Academic Sinica