Design of a digital archive website that focuses on “Kotaka Otsuma’s Collection” and its use in education

Abstract

Kotaka Otsuma is an author of many books whose topics range from school education to housewifery and women in general. She has also broadened the basis of home economics education in the Taisho to Showa period. Currently, among her works, 31 books from the library of Otsuma Women's University Library have been digitally archived and published as the “Kotaka Otsuma’s Collection”. Although this collection is important to understand the achievements of Kotaka Otsuma and various aspects of school education in her time, it is not well known to the public and has not been utilized effectively due to the website that was not designed based on an efficient browsing method. This study aimed to propose a method to use the “Kotaka Otsuma’s Collection” effectively through the design of a new website and the restoration of the works by students. As for the method, I first examined five existing websites that use digital archives and created three types of test sites: a museum database type, a social media type, and a general homepage type. Based on a survey on the three sites for students, I found that the general homepage type with many images is suitable for students to perceive the general outline of “Kotaka Otsuma’s Collection” because they can view and browse the content easily. Also, linking multiple websites increased the site recognition level, which led to an increase in the number of viewers. I also concluded that it is useful to actively incorporate digital archives in educational settings, such as work restoration, as a means to deepen the students’ learning experiences.