Keio University to partner with Google, Inc. for digitalization and release of its library collection to the world
For “Formation of Knowledge of the digital era”
Keio University is the first university as a modern comprehensive educational institution in Japan to
celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2008, and a series of commemorative projects have been launched
and will continue on for 10 years. As one of these projects, Keio University has decided to partner with
Google Book Search Library Project for digitalization and release of its library collection, and for this
purpose, has signed an Agreement fwith Google, Inc. This project already has 25 partners in the U.S.
and Europe, however Keio University will be the first partner outside U.S. and Europe. Keio University is
now initiating a “hybrid” library service to fulfill the needs of both analog and digital users of the library,
and the partnership will help accelerate this efforts. In addition, it will promote Keio’s initiatives entitled
“Formation of Knowledge of the digital era” by digitalizing various kinds of analog information within
the institution, including academic information, technical information, and library collection.
1. About the partnership of Keio University Media Center (Library) and Google, Inc.
From its library collection, Keio University will digitalize about 120,000 books that are out of
copyright and will release their contents to the world via Google Book Search. The books to be released
in the digital library will mainly consist of Japanese style books published in the Meiji Era or earlier,
and Japanese books of the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa Era. This includes many books written by
Yukichi Fukuzawa. Preparation will start in the summer of 2007, and the digitalization process is
currently planed to start in FY2008. Books related to Keio University will be digitalized in advance,
and the information will be released from time to time. The Library Project, with the objective of
digitalizing library collections of major libraries of the world, already has partnerships with 25
organizations including the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, and the
University of Oxford. Keio University will be the first partner in Japan.
Reference) http://books.google.com/googlebooks/library.html
2. Background
Keio University has been implementing the “Formation of Knowledge of the digital era”. The actual
activities include digitalizing all sorts of academic information available within the university and
promoting release and circulation of the information to the global society. To name some examples, Keio
University was one of the first universities to digitalize rare books such as the Gutenberg Bible and to
release the information in 1996 under the HUMI Project (*1), the Research Institute for Digital Media
and Content is establishing a digital contents sharing system to connect all campuses and overseas
offices of Keio University(*2), Keio Opencourseware provides advanced educational material on the
Internet free of charge(*3), Keio University hosts the School on the Internet Asia, a network of distance
education(*4), and it also implements the project of Global Campus, which provides joint lectures with
partner institutions around the world and uses high-speed network to release the lectures on the
Internet. These activities not only overcome geographic and temporal limitations of people in need of
the information, but also enable to promote and support formation of “Knowledge” globally, by
combining knowledge assets of historical value and leading-edge research developments.
Founder Yukichi Fukuzawa wrote that “building a nation should be done by the power of individuals, not
by the authorities” in one of his works “Yasegaman no Setsu”, and the “Formation of Knowledge of the
digital era” is an example of realization of the 150 year old school concept to form a society based on
independence and cooperation of each individuals. Fukuzawa and his followers have nurtured
“jitsugyo”(business) for the modernization of Japan, and these activities will enable the university to
contribute to the world based on technologies of the 21st century.
3. Significance of partnering with Google, Inc.
(1) Significance for Keio University
① Improving the “Formation of Knowledge of the digital era”
The partnership with Google, Inc. will accelerate digitalizing the library collection of Keio
University, and will improve and strengthen its activities for the “Formation of Knowledge of the
digital era”.
② Improving education, research activities, and international presence by promoting international
partnerships
Releasing Keio University’s academic assets to the world will lead to implementation of
international collaboration for research, and as a result, expansion of educational research and
improvement of educational standards can be expected. In addition, partnerships with the world’s
leading institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University and Oxford University,
already partners of Google Book Search, will be enhanced. Further developments will be made in
terms of international partnership of education and research.
(2) Significance for Keio University Media Center
The project will enable Keio University Media Center to provide intellectual assets of the
recent era of Japan in an international basis, and to contribute to academic research activities in
and out of the country. Today, many university libraries face issues on how to keep up with the
changing demands of the users caused by the development and popularization of the Internet and
digital journals. Keio University Media Center aims at development of a hybrid library service for
analog users (who visit the library to view books) and digital users (who use the library on the
Internet) and a next-generation system to preserve and release its collection digitally using
Internet technologies. It already has experience in digitalizing Yukichi Fukuzawa’s works and
research findings through the Digital Gallery(*7) and Institution Repository(*8). The partnership
with Google, Inc. will be an opportunity to utilize the existing assets such as the enormous library
collection and personnel, to establish a position as the world’s leading university library.
(3) Significance for worldwide education and research
Digitalizing and releasing research material through this project will contribute largely to
researchers around the globe for both independent researches and joint researches. Particularly,
the worldwide release of precious academic material of Japan will enable researchers of Japan all
over the world to view research material with no geographic limitations.
For more information please contact
Inquiries: Mr. Yoshino or Ms. Kurata, Office of Communications and Public Relations, Keio University
TEL: ＋81-3-5427-1541 FAX: ＋81-3-5441-7640
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.keio.ac.jp/
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Additional Information
*1: Humanities Media Interface (HUMI) Project
http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/en/introduction/index.html
The HUMI Project was launched in spring of 1996 to introduce a new method of communication in the field of Humanities. It aims at utilization of digital technologies to pursue new research methods and fields. Staffs of the Faculty of Letters mainly led the project to digitalize and study rare books of historical value, and staffs of the Faculty of Science and Technology studied methods of image processing and analyzed old books using nondestructive testing techniques, and staffs of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies and the Faculty of Law studied methods of information management and issues of intellectual properties of digital data. Today, this project is conducted by Digital Archive Research Center (DARC). http://www.darc.keio.ac.jp/
*2: Establishing a digital contents sharing system to connect all campuses and overseas offices of Keio University by the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content. This system enables to half-automatically process metadata of contents within the Keio University network, and to sort the information to match with the needs of each user. This is the first example of an enterprise contents
management system within a university network. http://context.dmc.keio.ac.jp
*3: Open courseware http://ocw.dmc.keio.ac.jp/
An open lecture project using the Internet led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Keio University was one of the first universities in Japan to participate, and today, a Keio University Faculty staff directs Japan OCW Consortium as the Secretary General.
*4: School on Internet Asia http://www.soi.wide.ad.jp/soi-asia/
This is a project hosted by Keio University and WIDE Project that connects 28 educational institutions in 12 countries of Asia to share lectures using satellite Internet technologies.
*5: Keio University SFC Global Campus http://gc.sfc.keio.ac.jp/
This project is based on the Shonan Fujisawa Campus of Keio University to share its lectures globally for non-Keio students. Lectures have started in FY2002 at the Faculty of Policy Management and Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and Graduate School of Media and Governance, and between Autumn Term of 2002 and Spring Term of 2007, in total 297 courses and some 4000 lectures are being released. Joint lectures with overseas institutions are held in China, Korea, North America and UK.
*6: Google Book Search Library Project Partner Institutions
■U.S.A. (19 partners) : University of California, Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Virginia, University of Texas at Austin, Princeton University, The New York Public Library, 12 universities of Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) (including the University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison)
■UK (1 partner) : Oxford University
■Spain (2 partners) : University Complutense of Madrid, The National Library of Catalonia
■Germany (1 partner) : Bavarian State Library
■Switzerland (1partner): University Library of Lausanne
■Belgium (1 partner): Ghent University Library
*7: Digital Gallery
Digitalization and release of rare books of Keio University Media Center on its website
http://project.lib.keio.ac.jp/dg_kul/index.html
*8: Institution Repository
This is a digital archive system of research institutions to preserve and release its intellectual products. At Keio University, the operation is conducted by Keio University, Keio Academic Resource Archive (KOARA).
