Japan: National Diet Library Begins Testing of Great East Japan Earthquake Archive

From The Asahi Shimbun:

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, jointly with the National Diet Library, on Jan. 10 will start tests [protoype available] of a “Great East Japan Earthquake Archive,” an integrated data management system for more than 100,000 items related to the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.
It plans to complete the system in early March and increase the number of items to more than 300,000, including related data.
[Clip]
The new system will allow users to locate photos taken in devastated areas and interviews conducted there, proceedings of investigatory committees on the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident and other data through a National Diet Library website.
[Clip]
The ministry will release a prototype of the archive on Jan. 10, and complete the system in early March after verifying copyright issues and other terms of use.

Read the Complete Article
See Also: Noritada Otaki, Librarian of the National Diet Library, Mentions the Archive in His New Year Greeting
In the section about 2013 objectives, he writes:

…we will establish a system for the Great East Japan Earthquake Archive to ensure conveying to future generations the records of and the lessons learned from the unprecedented disaster. The NDL is expected to play a pivotal role in nationally important duties: harvesting and preserving such records, utilizing them for reconstruction, and handing them down to future generations, all in cooperation with other institutions. The system―now under development in collaboration with a variety of organizations including the private sector along with both national and local governments―is scheduled to be released in March 2013. It will serve as an integrated portal to those records, which now consist of various media and formats. Assuming the leading role, the NDL will actively get involved with this national project to archive disaster records that would not survive the passing of time in their current state.

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Conference Presentations, Data Files, Interviews, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Patrons and Users