Inheriting Born-Digital Regional Memory

Abstract

　In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in born-digital materials, which are digital data from when they are generated, in addition to analogue materials as objects and their digitalised counterparts. In particular, the quantitative scale of digital data generated and owned by individuals is expanding due to the widespread use of smartphones and other devices. It is obvious that the amount of born-digital materials owned by individuals is also enormous. However, there has been little discussion on the qualitative characteristics of these materials and their handling from collection to preservation and utilisation. We have defined born-digital regional memory (BDRM) as digital data generated and owned in a region and launched a new project to collect and inherit it. In this paper, we present the background and whole image of how we came up with the idea of BDRM inheritance, the technical and social issues that can be envisaged, and the future vision for BDRM inheritance. We also report on "Dejikio" (deriving from digital-kioku), the practice of collecting BDRM, in Yamagata, and present the challenges and prospects.