The Keio Object Hub was awarded the Digital Archive Japan Award by the Digital Archive Japan Promotion Committee, with the award ceremony held on August 25.
Keio University has continuously engaged in digitizing its collection and making them available to the public through initiatives such as the Humanities Media Interface (HUMI) Project, which was established in the 1990s for digitally archiving rare books. The Keio Object Hub consolidates various academic resources at Keio, including those digital archives. It serves as the "hub" of the university's digital archiving efforts, and works to both preserve and provide access to materials in the long term. It also offers more than 5,000 pieces of content with rich metadata and open secondary use conditions (CC BY). These ongoing long-term activities have been greatly lauded.
Keio Object Hub is supported by various individuals and organizations at Keio University, and is operated by the Keio Museum Commons (KeMCo).
Comments from Kohei Itoh, president of Keio University
Keio University has been engaged in research and practice related to the digitization of academic materials since the early beginnings of digital archiving technology. The HUMI project pioneered the digitization of valuable books. Today, no matter if we are working in the humanities or the sciences, we have been expanding similar efforts in a variety of fields, from affiliated schools that begin with elementary education to the university level. The Keio Object Hub is a platform for consolidating, publicizing, and utilizing the digital academic resources generated by the activities of Keio University as a whole.
It is a great pleasure and encouragement for us to receive this award. As a member of our present and future society, we will continue to work hard to advance digital archiving.