Building a Japanese Tourism Ephemera Archive: Case Studies, Metadata Design, and Prototype Development

This paper presents ongoing work to build a comprehensive archive of Japanese tourism ephemera.Despite their importance as primary sources for a wide range of research fields in understanding historical and contemporary society, ephemera materials, including brochures, leaflets, and pamphlets, are rarely systematically collected and preserved.Through case studies of ephemera collections, we identified key challenges in archiving ephemera: physical preservation methods, metadata standardization, and sustainable collection practices.Based on these findings, we designed a metadata schema incorporating both standard and ephemera-specific elements, and developed tool prototypes to support metadata creation workflows.We adopted an iterative approach, including collaboration with a local public library, in order to conduct real-world testing and progressive development of the ephemera archive.Our work provides practical insights for designing archival systems while balancing ideal practices and practical constraints, contributing to the preservation of cultural materials and supporting research in various fields.