Toward the Development of
Archives Descriptive Standards in Japan
February 1997
Kazumasa Inahashi
Director General, National Archives of Japan
Toward the Development of
Archives Descriptive Standards in Japan
1. Studies of archives descriptive standards in Japan
(1) History of the preparation of finding aids
With the creation of modern administrative organizations after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Japanese archives management system has been established and progressively improved.
Under the archives management system, finding aids, though limited to certain fields, have been prepared for use by the administrative organizations concerned. Their formats reflect the specific records management regulations, and consist of, for example, dates, names of organizations, retention periods and volume titles. In defining them, it was assumed that they would be used only by administrative staff in the course of their official duties. Consequently, they did not include topics with which the staff were familiar, since the retrieval was considered successful if it found the volume containing the required documents.
The introduction, after the end of World War II, of a policy of public access to archives, meant that such systems had to be changed. Archives stored by the various administrative organizations were progressively transferred to the National Archives of Japan, which was established in 1971.
The National Archives of Japan began the work of producing finding aids, in order to facilitate access to the transferred archives. At this initial stage, however, little study had been made of cataloging methods, and the officials concerned were therefore obliged to prepare empirically the finding aids which they assumed would meet the needs of the general public.
(2) Lists of volume-wise titles and of subject-wise titles
a. Lists of volume-wise titles
Lists of volume-wise titles were the first among those produced by the work to prepare archival finding aids. A user wishing to use archives has first of all to locate a particular volume, the smallest unit of access request. For the same reason, lists of volume-wise titles are essential to the National Archives itself, where the volume is also the smallest unit of management.
b. Lists of subject-wise titles
Lists of volume-wise titles do not indicate the content of the individual records filed in a particular volume. Users are obliged, therefore, to select possible volumes, and then to examine the contents of each subject in those volumes in order to find the information that they are seeking : an extremely time-consuming process.
The National Archives of Japan therefore has developed lists of subject-wise titles, which describe the content of the individual records filed in a specific volume. The lists give details such as the title of the archives, the date on which it was created, the names of the parties to which it refers, and the presence or absence of attachments. This data helps users to find the archives that they need. The lists are less important to those managing the archives, however, and take an enormous amount of time to compile. For these reasons, lists of subject-wise titles have not been prepared for all volumes.
2. Establishing a database of archival finding aids, by taking into account the ICA Archives Descriptive Standards
(1) History
In order to improve access to and use of its archives, in September 1992, the National Archives set up a Study Committee on Establishing a Database of Archival Finding Aids. It consists of five experts, whose brief was to examine ways and means of establishing a database of archival finding aids for archives kept in the National Archives of Japan. In the report on its studies produced in March 1995, the Committee recommended the following course of immediate action.
i. The systemization of archives management work, such as accession and arrangement of archives and the preparation of finding aids data;
ii. The establishment of a finding aids database and of a finding system to be used for accessible archives;
iii. The establishment of image and full-text databases for accessible archives.
Based on this Report, the National Archives formed a Study Committee on Establishing a Database of Archival Finding Aids and Introduction of the Necessary Equipment in September 1995. It was commissioned to study the format of the database to be established and consider the operational problems which might arise, in order to establish an optimum database of finding aids for archives kept in the National Archives of Japan. The Committee’s work continues, and is expected to produce a model database of archival finding aids for use not only in the National Archives, but also in local government archives throughout Japan.
(2) Examination and acceptance of the General International Standard on Archival Description : ISAD(G)
The National Archives of Japan aims to build a database of finding aids suited to the needs of the 21st century’s advanced “information society,” and will take account of international trends in this field. The Committee has visited European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Holland, to see how archival finding aids databases have been established there. It also recognizes the General International Standard on Archival Description (ISAD(G)), which, in September 1992, was adopted at the 12th International Congress on Archives in Montreal, as one of the international descriptive standards. The Committee has investigated the possibility of introducing the Standard, having regard to the characteristics of Japanese archives.
Several items specified by the ICA Archives Descriptive Standards, such as language and form, have been introduc ed into the database system. However, the finalizing of a multi-level description method, based upon the hierarchical structure of the archives, in the preparation of finding aids and the description of administrative and biographical history require a great deal of work. Moreover, a study of archives descriptive standards in the field of history, including administrative history, has not yet been performed. The Committee has therefore decided to establish an interim system capable of locating required archives. It operates as follows :
i. An authorization file entitled “administrative organization development file,” was prepared as a sub-file of the finding aids data file to support retrieval. It contains details of changes in administrative organizations, including establishment, consolidation, amalgamation, and abolition.
ii. Data items are grouped under two hierarchival levels : “volume” and “subject”, and each record can have as many as 54 fields (see list of data items).
(3) Current status of the work to establish a finding aids database, and associated problems
Having taken account of the Committee’s findings, the National Archives of Japan will begin to store finding aids in its computer in March 1997.
The current plan is to start this process by storing 47,000 items from the DAJO RUITEN archives, which date from the period when our present administrative organization was first founded.
In view of the volume of data input work and the expense entailed in establishing image and full-text databases, and of the present unsatisfactory level of OCR technology, a method of setting up these databases efficiently has yet to be devised. For the time being, therefore, priority will be given to the establishment of a database of finding aids for use at subject level.
The archival finding aids description in respect of the administrative history of archives must not only cover the content of individual archives, but also relate to a wide range of information about how the archives were created. It is intended, therefore, to improve the administrative history development file by adding findings resulting from the studies by the National Archives of Japan.
The preparation of archival finding aids using a “multi-level description” method, which is based on the concept of hierarchies of records, a basis of the ICA Archives Descriptive Standards, is recognized as one of the themes to be studied.