Work

Building a Japanese Tourism Ephemera Archive: Case Studies, Metadata Design, and Prototype Development

Year: 2025

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: This paper presents ongoing work to build a comprehensive archive of Japanese tourism ephemera.Despite their importance as primary sources for a wide range of research fields in understanding historical and contemporary society, ephemera materials, including brochures, leaflets, and pamphlets, are rarely systematically collected and preserved.Through case studies of ephemera collections, we identified key challenges in archiving ephemera: physical preservation methods, metadata standardization, and sustainable collection practices.Based on these findings, we designed a metadata schema incorporating both standard and ephemera-specific elements, and developed tool prototypes to support metadata creation workflows.We adopted an iterative approach, including collaboration with a local public library, in order to conduct real-world testing and progressive development of the ephemera archive.Our work provides practical insights for designing archival systems while balancing ideal practices and practical constraints, contributing to the preservation of cultural materials and supporting research in various fields.

Source: Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA)

DOI: 10.1145/3706599.3719879

Authors: Xinru Zhu, Ayumi Katsuki, Kashin Sugishita, Ning Yang, Tomokazu Takada

Institutions: Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo Polytechnic University, Sugiyama Jogakuen University, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics

Language: English

Topic: Digital and Traditional Archives Management

Subfield: Conservation

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Yale University, Harvard Business School, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics

Award: G4041559515