What’s Past is Prologue: A 15-Year Review of Digital Archives Program in Taiwan

Abstract

This chapter gives a comprehensive review of Taiwan’s Digital Archives Program, built on a national scale over the past 15 years. Currently more than 100 libraries, archives, museums, academic institutions, and government agencies are involved, and the program has created more than 5 million digital objects as well as more than 700 databases and Websites. This chapter investigates the goals and strategies of the program, probing into research and development, important achievements, values, lessons, and challenges in 6 aspects, including digital contents, digital technology, metadata interoperability, applications, industrialization development, and international cooperation. Although this national program was officially terminated at the end of 2012, the accumulation of digital contents, core technologies, and digital infrastructure over its lifespan makes it certain that one can look forward to its continuing impact upon open data, digital humanities, and sustainable digital archives.