I.    About the Archives
The Archives of Institute of Taiwan History (ITH), Academia Sinica was formally founded at the end of 2009. Following the tradition of “Historical Records Office,” the division responsible for acquiring historical materials during ITH’s Preparatory Office period, the mission and service of Archives of ITH is to preserve the private and official records of Taiwan history, provide free and open access to the documents for researches, and conduct promotional activities such as exhibitions, educational programs, etc.

ITH has been collecting historical materials since its inception in 1993. The holdings of Archives of ITH date back to 1735. They include private land contracts during the Qing dynasty and Japanese colonial period; and official records, personal and family papers, and historical images during the Japanese colonial period and postwar period. For example, there are Taiwan Forestry Archives during the period of Taiwan Sotokufu governance (1895-1945), Taiwan Provincial Assembly Records (1946-1959), postcards of Taiwan Expositions held by Japan Colonial Government (1907-1938), and the collections of Michael H. Finegan.

II.    Digitization Achievements
ITH aims to digitize unique and valuable historical records of Taiwan through the historical profession and digitizing skill of its personnel. Since the diversity of cultural and historical resources is essential for history research, the digitization outcome can be used for academic studies and dissemination of Taiwan history among the public. ITH has been participating in the Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program since 2004; it will continue to digitize more materials, including official and private documents and the publications in Taiwan study by the official and private sectors.
   
In order to integrate digital resources and provide continued access to them so that the knowledge of Taiwan history can be promoted, the Archives of ITH has created a web portal of digitized collections. Three of the collection retrieval systems are described below:


1.    Taiwan Archival Information System (臺灣史檔案資源系統)
 

The archives management information system embodies diverse and multi-formatted historical records, private manuscripts, images, official documents, and book collections related to Taiwan history to ensure the information can be integrated and preserved long-term. The formats of the resources for the database include physical and digital manifestations. The system is formally launched in March 2008, providing information services of digital contents and digital knowledge.

As of July 2011, the information available online include private land contracts during the Qing dynasty and Japanese colonial period; private collections of Yang Yun-ping (楊雲萍), Du Xiang-guo (杜香國), and Michael H. Finegan (費邁克); as well as documents of various government agencies such as Taiwan Forestry Archives during the period of Taiwan Sotokufu governance (1895-1945), Taiwan Development Company Records (1920-1949), and Taiwan Provincial Assembly Records (1946-1959). Altogether, there are 36,000 items in the catalog and about 600,000 digital images.

Access: Access of the catalog is free. Access to full-text images is limited to IP addresses within Institute of Taiwan History.

2.    Rare Book Collections of Taiwan under Japanese Rule, 1895-1945 (日治時期臺灣研究古籍資料庫)
 

The database contains Japanese rare books archived cooperatively by ITH and National Taiwan Library. These books were originally held by Imperial Taiwan Library, Southern Materials Center, and Taiwan Provincial Library which purchased some of their books from the Japanese professors at Taiwan University after World War II. The types of literature in this database include books, periodicals, newspapers, and communiqué. As of July 2011, 80,000 items and 870,000 digital images are available online for public access.

Access: Access of the catalog is free. Access to full-text images requires Account application. User guide is provided (in Chinese).

 
3.    Taiwan Diary Knowledge Bank (臺灣日記知識庫)
 

The value-added knowledge-based digital system offers information inquiry service of both the full-text personal diaries and their annotations. Its platform was built in 2008 by ITH’s in-house personnel employing free social software tool “wiki.” The system went online for testing in August 2009. As of August 2011, five personal diaries have been included in the database: Diaries of Chang Li-jun, 1906-1937 (水竹居主人日記); Diaries of Lin Hsien-t’ang, 1927-1944 (灌園先生日記); Diaries of Chien Chi in Jail, 1929-1930 (簡吉獄中日記); Diaries of Ng Ong-seng, 1912-1913 (黃旺成日記); and Diaries of Yang Ji-zhen, 1944-1950 (楊基振先生日記). There are 20,000 full-text diary entries and 12,000 pieces of annotations, a total of 4,500,000 characters. The users can browse a diary by date or perform full-text search. They can further refer to other diary entries written by different authors on the same date.

Access: This database went online for test purposes in August 2009. The faculty members in Academia Sinica are granted access. Other users can access it in the Historical Records Reading Room of Archives, ITH.


Text and images are provided by the Digitization & Value-added Project of Taiwan Historical Archives in the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica