Research Resource Project

In Research Resource Archive, Kyoto University (KURRA), we preserve digitally primary source materials that were made within educational and research activities in Kyoto University, and make them available for not only people inside the university but also outside. To accept new materials into KURRA and make them usable, we need to do a sizeable amount of work: investigation and arrangement of the materials, composition of metadata (information about the material), digitization of the materials, and preservation of the original materials. To accomplish this, we start a new “creating research resource project” for each new set of materials.

Because KURRA is working in cooperation among many departments in the university, a proposal for a new project about new materials is made by various department, and the steering committee, which consists members from all departments, discuss the proposal before accepting. The proposal from a department is called “application for offering materials”. After the proposal is accepted, the project for creating research resource starts.

Summary

Acceptable Materials

Primary source materials that were made within educational and research activities in Kyoto University

  • We do not accept books and theses available to the public, neither materials reproduced from an original outside Kyoto University.
  • We may not accept materials with problems of the rights, such as ownership, copyright, and portrait rights.

Qualification for Application

Member of Kyoto University

  • Non-members (for example, alumni, retired employees, or descendants of them) also can request investigation of materials.
  • If you are not a member of the University, please contact the related department.

Procedure

A “creating research resource project” roughly goes as follows:

  1. Investigation of the materials
    First, we need to collect information about the materials: media and quantity of the materials; who created, collected, and have preserved the materials; related people and organization; the result and the references of the research related the materials; and so on. Note that our staffs ask the applicants about the contents of the application again during the investigation for certain understanding.
  2. Arrangement and Preservation
    We investigate condition of the materials and a method to analyze contents of the materials. Then we record the condition of them, clean them and perform treatment to them, and create a catalog of the materials. We digitize the contents of the materials as needed. At this step, we ask the applicants for help in describing explanation of the contentns and information about the materials.
  3. Creating “Digital Collection” in Kyoto University Digital Archive System (Peek)
    We compile collected information and input them into Kyoto University Digital Archive System (called Peek), then add more explanation and classification to make them understandable for a person who doesn’t have something to do with an activity that produced the material. We ask the applicants for help in inspection of our description, or writing about attraction of the materials.
  4. Preparation for Release
    Basically, we make our digital collections available for academic and educational use.  Based on the contents of materials, we may need to restrict availability, for example, for researchers inside Kyoto university only, or for members of the university only. In such case, the applicants need to decide for whom the materials is available, and to help handling rights about the materials.
  5. Release and Maintenance of the Digital Collection
    We may revise the digital collection following user’s advice. Even it is possible that data, which was not digitized at the first time in some reason and is digitized afterward, are added to the collection.

Our archivists help the applicants in all of these five steps.

Note that KURRA generally does not host the original materials. The original materials need to be preserved in the department where the applicants belong. KURRA can help preservation by investigation and suggestion about preserving methods.

A digital collection and its contents (digitized data and their metadata) should be available at least within the Kyoto university. (Availability of the original materials is left up to the judgement of each department.) It is also desirable that the collection is available to the public, outside the university, for academic and educational use.

Period of Time

A “creating research resource project” is basically in one year, but it is possible for an applicant to propose a project that continues several years. We have a precedent of a three-year project. Note that we may have to restrict period of a proposed project for financial reasons.

Examination

The steering committee examine an application as a whole, taking into account the following aspects.

  1. contents of the material
  2.  status of the provenance in an academic field
  3. attraction, importance, and usefulness of the material
  4. relation to Kyoto University or a special reason to preserve in KURRA
  5. condition and amount of the material
  6. workload of KURRA staffs

We accept an application for offering materials and a request for investigation at any time. However, an examination of applications by the steering committee is held once a year, around January or February.

Application procedure (as of August, 2023)

To apply for offering new materials, please request investigation of the materials first. We don’t accept any application without prior investigation. An application deadline is in every autumn. Applications before the deadline are examined in winter, and it is informed by next April whether each application is accepted or not. Accepted projects are basically carried out after next April. Note that some of the accepted projects may be carried out before next April, depending on condition of the materials, urgency of preservation, amount of materials, or budget scale.

The followings are important dates for application of a project in 2024.

  • Deadline for request investigation: 28th September, 2023
  • Deadline for application for offering materials: October, 2023
  • Notification of acceptance: March to April, 2024
  • Starting a project: After April, 2024

A form for investigation request (in Japanese)

E-mail: kurra-info@inet.museum.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Please write “Request investigation of materials for KURRA”.

  1. Request of investigation
    Just fill in the form for investigation request above, and send it by e-mail.
    We will mail you back to adjust schedule for consultation and investigation.
  2. Investigation
    Our archivists carry out investigation. We ask the applicants to inform about the investigation to the department, and to secure human resources to cooperate the investigation. We have to know outline of the materials, condition and amount of the materials, condition about rights, possibility of publication and use, and existence of related experts and research related the materials. Please cooperate with us for interviewing the relevant people and investigation the actual materials. Our archivists will make a report about “creating research resource” and preservation of the materials.
  3. Application for Offering Materials
    Please write an application and send it under name of the head of the department. The official seal of the head is also necessary. To write an application, please consult a report about the investigation by our archivists, and discuss with members of the department, including the head.
  4. Notification
    The steering committee examine the application and decide whether KURRA accept it or not. The result is informed by next March to April.

The steering committee of Research Resource Archive, Kyoto University (as of April, 2023)

  • Norihiro Tokitoh, Kyoto University, Executive Vice-President (the chairperson of the committee)
  • Hidetoshi Nagamasu, the Kyoto University Museum, Director
  • Yasuo Okabe, Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies, Director
  • Katsuya Nagamori, Dean of Main Library, Director
  • Takashi Hikihara, Graduate School of Engineering, Director of Institute for Information Management and Communication
  • Takao Ito, Graduate School of Law, Director of the Kyoto University Archives
  • Haruyoshi Goto, the Kyoto University Museum, Lecturer
  • Yuichi Nakamura, Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies, Professor
  • Yuko Kizu, Graduate School of Letters, Dean
  • Koichiro Tanaka, Graduate School of Science, Dean
  • Yasuto Tachikawa, Graduate School of Engineering, Dean
  • Shinya Takeda, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Dean
  • Atsushi Igarashi, Graduate School of Informatics, Dean
  • Takuji Iwaki, Institute for Research in Humanities, Director
  • Katsuki Nakamura, Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior, Director
  • Akira Asakura, Field Science Education and Research Center, Director
  • Tatsuya Kawahara, Graduate School of Informatics, Professor