[M-IS22] History X Earth and Planetary Science

[MIS22-05] Rekiske: Interdisciplinary Platform for Sharing Knowledge and Experience of Japanese Historical Documents with a card-type data schema

*Mika Ichino^1,2, Kooiti Masuda³, Asanobu Kitamoto^1,2 (1.Center for Open Data in the Humanities, Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research, Research Organization of Information and Systems , 2.National Institute of Informatics, 3.Rissho Univ.)

Keywords:Historical documents, Interdisciplinary collaboration, Sharing information system, Metadata, Spatio-temporal information, Historical climatology

Historical materials contain descriptions of various natural processes and human societies involved, such as weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, harvests, market prices, and famines. They have been used for studies in diverse fields, including natural sciences (such as seismology, climatology, and astronomy), social sciences, and humanities. Hence, researchers have made various efforts to identify and obtain the materials, read handwritten characters and transcribe them into digital texts, standardise formats, extract descriptions of relevant phenomena, and construct integrated datasets to use documentary information. Because scientists, other than historians, find it quite even challenging to ascertain where to find appropriate research materials, the Rekiske Development Group has, therefore, developed a system called Rekiske (https://rksk.ex.nii.ac.jp/) to facilitate interdisciplinary sharing of information available from historical materials. Rekiske is designed for sharing bibliographic and scientific information of historical materials, along with researchers’ experience and knowledge, through interdisciplinary collaboration. Rekiske can assist researchers in identifying and obtaining useful historical materials for research purposes. It also facilitates collaboration among experts to share their expertise and knowledge of historical information, materials, and recent studies. Using Rekiske, we register various types of information on historical materials regarding the weather or earthquakes considered in geoscience research to utilise researchers’ experiences and to produce new knowledge through interdisciplinary collaborations. Rekiske has several features to achieve its purpose, different from previous portals for historical documents’ information. For example, Rekisuke can handle spatio-temporal information, which is fundamental in geoscience. Conversion between Japanese and Western calendars is provided by the HuTime API (http://www.hutime.jp/); thus, users can enter the dates in either calendar. For location information, it uses Location-cards and links them to GeoLOD (https://geolod.ex.nii.ac.jp/). The developed system is designed to be used as a metadata portal and pathfinder to promote and preserve historical data and facilitate understanding the spatiotemporal connection between nature and human society. We have applied Rekiske to historical climatic studies and discussed its usage, benefits, usability, and other remaining issues.