RESEARCH ON AN AUTOMATED STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM FOR LOCATIVE INFORMATION OF ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

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SHIRYOKAN(Department of Historical Manuscripts, National Institute of Japanese Literature) has developed a unique card catalogue system for the information on archival resources of the nation. In this system, basic data of each record group or manuscript collection are derived from archival inventories or other type of finding aids, which has been collected from every kind of archival repositories, libraries, museums, editorial offices of local government history, and other related institutions; data then transcribed onto a specially designed 'data card', group by group or collection by collection. The number of "data cards" amounted to more than 30,000 at the beginning of the present research project.The aim of the present research project was to develop a nationwide database of basic information on the location of archival resources, utilizing the accumulation of abovementioned 'data cards". For the first step of the project, we clarified the data structure peculiar to archival information on "data cards"; secondly, we identified problems in converting manual "data cards" into machine-readable files. These basic studies resulted in our final success in converting 28,000 sheets of SHIRYOKAN "data cards" into iiachine-readable medium by preparing initial input files, as well as in developing a pilot system of archival database "SINDBAD" (Shiryokan National DataBase of Archival and Documentary resources).Software we used for this system is DBASEIII Plus. We also developed another database "SACIS" (Shiryokan Archival Catalogue Information System) for the bibliographyeal information of archival catalogues or inventories. Despite of many defects to be improved, the achievement of the project is believed to be epoch-making in the archival development in Japan.