The year 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives, which are known as “Japanʼs first archives”．On the occasion of its establishment, the Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives absorbed its character and functions from overseas archival institutions and reached the understanding that “archives are based on a democratic principle”．As it arrived at its 50th year, the Public Documents and Records Management Act was passed. The outlook of Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives has been legally recognized as a national standard in article 1 of the act,titled “Purpose”．I present this study of the process of 50 years centering on two archival concepts (institutional archives and collecting archives).

The objective of this article is to describe the 50-year history of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives since its establishment in 1959. First, the outline history of that institution is described and the data on researcher numbers and their backgrounds are analyzed. Secondly, the activities of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Library preceding the establishment of the Archives are examined in order to discuss how it influenced the nature of the archives. Thirdly, based on an analysis of the vicissitudes of archivesʼpolicy, the author points out that its decisions always reflected the problems it faced at that particular time and he discusses how they led to the development of the activities pursued at the Archives.

This article analyzes the results of and problems arising from archival arrangement, description, and retrieval systems so as to provide a context for consideration of “Archives Japan 50”．To begin with, the author introduces the construction of the information retrieval system at Kyoto University Archives. Next, he discusses the three following points: the current status of the retrieval system and its background, some problems relating to and resulting from changes in the parent organization, and standardization of description. Finally, the author suggests that we have to strive to pursue the question of what archives are in a profound way through establishing standardized description systems, as an essay on the future of archives in Japan.

This paper aims to discover what fifty years of Japanʼs archival science has done on moving images. First, it supplies a brief history of moving image archives which is rather different from the history of conventional archives.

Then, it reviews the relationship between moving images and archives/archival science which have hitherto mainly concentrated on paper and textual records. By examining related literature, it was found that libraries and information science worldwide have given much more consideration to moving images than archival science has done in Japan. In the era of original digital information and records, it is urged that preservation should be undertaken regardless of different characteristics of the media by further sharing of thoughts on the issues facing us.

What is the foundation of the literary studies? Is it a book, or a text? This question has come to take on great significance in the sphere of literary studies in light of the rapid process of the digitization of books. The field of scholarly editing, which has been facing this question over the last several years, is falling into a serious dilemma concerning the “representation”of the material characteristics of books. This dilemma will gradually transform the field of scholarly editing into a new field, which can be called Archival Science. In this essay, while contemplating in depth the concept of the so-called“original,” which is considered to be the most important research material in the Humanities, I will discuss the future direction of scholarly trends pertaining to literary studies.