1.1 About the Search System
The Search System allows you to simultaneously search through two million high-definition images of historical Chinese characters provided by separate organizations. The project is a collaborative effort to promote the cooperation and sharing of data between several international and domestic organizations.
1.2 What makes the Search System different?
1.It respects the identity of each participating organization and treats them as equal partners
We have built a framework in which the Search System only provides a joint search function while the data remain in the hands of the partner-organizations. With this, we managed to build a search engine that allows the participating organizations to retain the specific aims and directions of their databases.
2.It conforms to international standards
To ensure that both domestic and international organizations could easily join in the project, the Search System complies with the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF).
3.It enhances the ease of re-using data
The image results of the Search System are open access. Furthermore, to promote the use of the data, the results include detailed information taken directly from the original databases. Nonetheless, the search engine respects the intellectual rights of the participants and follows their policies.
The members of this project as of March 2020 (Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica; Academia Sinica Center for Digital Cultures; Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties; Historiographical Institute, The University of Tokyo; National Institute of Japanese Literature; National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics; The Kyoto University Research Centre for the Cultural Sciences) would like to encourage further participation in the future.
