Report on the provision of contents of Kyoto University Digital Library and its method of digitalizing rare materials

The Kyoto University Digital Library makes images of the rare materials that it holds available to general public. While most of the pages consist of scanned images alone, some are accompanied by corresponding encoded text data. This report summarizes the principal parts of the procedures for producing image data. Demand for a well-designed interface grows as the amount of available digital data expands, as the Internet environment develops with easier access to digital contents and as high-quality images become more and more available. It is not accurately understood how the users utilize the image data from our digital library site. The concept of an image database was not thoroughly explored, to our regret, at the planning stage of construction for the Kyoto University Digital Library. A system update for the library is scheduled to happen in January 2002. The metadata elements that we are planning to adopt for our digital library system will also be included at that time