This paper introduces an overview of the book "Digital Archive Basics". Through 14 discussions and 3 columns, the book examines the information infrastructure system and operational management of digital archives (DA) from multiple perspectives. In the first, it establishes a theoretical foundation through essential considerations of digital preservation and analysis of international standards. The second part clarifies operational challenges from practical examples at the National Diet Library and companies. The third part explores the potential of DA as a research data infrastructure and management. Finally, through the editing of Parts One to Three, it considers philosophical propositions regarding the nature and preservation of digital data, technical issues of the system foundation, and fundamental issues in constructing a sustainable operational model.

This paper provides an overview of JDCat, a research data infrastructure for the humanities and social sciences, and describes the data contributed to JDCat by Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo (for short, HI). It explains the management methods for the long-term use and preservation of early modern Japanese historical materials collected and contributed by HI. Furthermore, the paper outlines the process from data collection to publication and contribution to JDCat.

The long-term preservation of digital materials faces numerous challenges, such as media deterioration and format obsolescence. To address these, the reference model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS), an international standard, has been adopted, driving the development of related technologies and tools. Archivematica acts as an intermediary to manage and preserve archival materials by automating a preservation workflow in compliance with the OAIS reference model. This paper explores how Archivematica supports long-term preservation based on the OAIS model by examining its development background, features, functions, and implementation cases, thereby deepening our understanding of long-term preservation.

WordPress is a CMS used on approximately 40% of websites worldwide, primarily for publishing blogs. The Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, recognizing the high customizability of WordPress, has adopted it for their catalog publishing system used for cultural property information and their digital content publishing system, continuing its development and operation since 2014. WordPress is a flexible CMS that can be used for various purposes; however, its operation may sometimes differ from initial expectations. Currently, the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties is planning its renewal to simplify its increasingly complex operations.

The National Diet Library Digital Collections, operated by the National Diet Library is a digital archive that houses a wide variety of materials. Beyond digitized images scanned from physical documents and electronic documents published in formats such as PDF and ePub, the collection includes content extracted from CD-ROMs and videos digitized from laser disks. This paper will explain the technical elements involved in the preservation and provision of content in this system. It will also discuss how not only the replication but also its utilization of this content contributes to its long-term preservation for future generations.

In the light of the Digital Archive Charter, the significance, challenges and solutions for the preservation, publication and utilisation of broadcast archives are discussed. From the Charter's preamble, it confirms the wavering 'authority' of the broadcasting industry and looks at the potential for value creation through the dissemination of broadcast archives. It also considers the 'right to remember for society' through cases of people giving up the use of broadcast archives. The absence of provisions in the Broadcasting Act that relate broadcasters to archives and the tendency of broadcasters to regard archives as 'commercial property' are pointed out, and a draft of soft law for 'public use' with high public interest and non-commercial nature is presented, with proposals for the creation of rules for public access and use.