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Digitizing Historical Records

The first and foremost things to examine in studying history are historical records because it is through basis and reasonable analysis of historical records that the objectivity of studies in history can be achieved. Accordingly, most researchers of history have large stacks of historical records and monographs in the bookshelf at their home or office. When they work on a paper or report, they struggle to find the right source out of the mountain of historical records available, and carry around quite a large amount of materials for research. However, this trend of carrying around research materials is beginning to change with the recent evolution of the digital environment. Since the beginning of the full-scale historical records digitizing project in 1999, about 10 million items of historical records alone have been made available online. They make up extensive databases that cover from ancient to modern and contemporary periods, and from official history, such as Samguk Saki (The History of Three Kingdoms) and Koryosa (The History of Goryo), to journals and registries, such as Joseonwangjo-sillok (Annals of the Joseon Dynasty), Seungjeongwonilgi (Daily Records of the Royal Secretariat), Bibyeonsa Deunglog (Records of the Border Defense Council), and Ilseongnok (Daily Records for Royal Introspection), and anthologies, old maps, and newspapers.

Introduction to the NAHF's Original Text Databases

[Table 1] Original Text Databases
on the Northeast Asian History Net

Keeping pace with the trend of digitizing historical records, the Northeast Asian History Foundation has been also building original text databases of historical records related to the issues of Northeast Asian history. In 2011, the NAHF started participating in the national DB project by the National Information Society Agency (NIA), and has completed the Year 2 project (building the Northeast Asian History Materials Database). The NAHF has also secured a budget of its own, which is being expended on building the Northeast Asian History Database system. In particular, the databases of historical records being built by the NAHF are differentiated from those of other organizations in many aspects. While the databases of historical records built by other organizations are largely specific groups of records, i.e. collections, such as "journals from the Joseon period," "anthologies," "classics from South Gyeongsang Province," "official history," "modern and contemporary newspapers," and "old maps," those by the NAHF are by subject to cope with historical issues. Not that the existing databases of 10 million historical records lack items on specific subjects such as Dokdo and Koguryo. However, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to locate specific records among such a vast set of historical information that will offer a consistent look on a certain subject. In other words, even with the aid of excellent search skills, it is still difficult to pinpoint records on a certain subject. As a solution to this problem, the Northeast Asian History Net (http://contents.nahf.or.kr) run by the NAHF has compiled the records of historical issues into groups by subject, making it relatively easy to find certain records necessary to counter the distortion of history. For the original text databases built by the NAHF so far as of 2012, refer to Table 1. ([Picture] Dongmunhwigo (Documents on Foreign Relations) 2012 National DB Project)

Records of Interest and Challenges Ahead

Dongmunhwigo

『Complete Map of
Korea』 - Dokdo

The Northeast Asian History Net provides records that are of particular interest, such as records on Koguryo and Dokdo. Records on these subjects usually come in the form of literature. While the Northeast Asian History Net does have some literary records, of course, the majority of records on Koguryo and Dokdo are limited to the boundaries of the databases of major records already built by other organizations. Besides, literary records, despite their importance, are not easy to identify their contents at a glance. It may be explanatory notes and images that make it easy for the user to understand literary records by overcoming their limitations. As a specific example, Records of the Cultural Heritage of Koguryo is a result of direct survey of Koguryo sites and relics scattered across China and Japan and compilation of the survey results into data. Currently, the NAHF History Research Department is carrying on the survey, the result of which will go on expanding the cultural heritage of Koguryo. The database of Koguryo relics so built comes with the GIS information of the location of sites and relics, providing a general Koguryo cultural heritage distribution map. Another noteworthy record is Old Maps of Dokdo and East Sea. Over the past few years, the NAHF has been, and still is, making consistent efforts to collect old maps of the East and the West marked with Dokdo and East Sea. Of the old maps so collected, all the 200 maps collected by early 2012 have been compiled into a database and made available. For example, "Complete Map of Korea (published by Bakmunkwan, Meiji 37)" made in Japan in 1905 immediately after the Russo-Japanese War marks both Ulleungdo and Dokdo as Korean territory. As a matter of fact, the mark of Ulleungdo-Doko had been Ulleungdo-Takeshima (竹島) and Dokdo-Matsushima (松島) until the end of the Russo-Japanese War, whereupon Japan began marking Dokdo as Takeshima, as well illustrated in this "Complete Map of Korea." To these maps made available to the public, the Northeast Asian History Net adds detailed explanatory notes that will help the user better understand them.

the History Education

the History Education
section

The Northeast Asian History Net offers additional records worthy of attention. These original text databases are valuable resources as major records that enable us to cope with historical issues including the neighboring nations' distortion of history. Furthermore, the original text databases also serve as fundamental resources based on which secondary web contents for historical issues/history education are produced. The Northeast Asian History Net offers the Historical Issues section and the History Education section under separate categories. The Historical Issues section features a collection of the contents for the general public that the NAHF has been creating consistently, including the 3D restoration of Koguryo ancient tombs with murals. And the History Education section offers educational contents that can be used in school for the recently ongoing education on 'Dokdo' and 'East Asian History.' In particular, the supplementary textbooks on Dokdo used in elementary, middle, and high schools are Dokdo education materials available online, and configured such that students can also access them. In relation to 'East Asian History' education, The History of East Asia, developed in 2011 as a series of education books on East Asian history, have been made into Web contents with the feature of keyword search that would provide link to the original texts so that they could be used for reference in teaching and learning the subject.

This was a brief introduction to the original text databases built by the NAHF. Even though it was during a short period of time, the NAHF has achieved the specific accomplishment of building the original text databases related to historical issues. In addition, the NAHF does not stop at making the original text databases available for the public, but continues to create new contents by drawing records. As such, the NAHF is serving as a portal amassing records to cope with the historical issues of Northeast Asia through the building of the databases, and will continue to create contents by drawing on those databases in order to help the general public better understand history and raise historical awareness.

The Northeast Asian History Net is still evolving as we speak.