Tokyo National Museum's 140th Anniversary Thematic Exhibitions: History of Information at the Museum's Research and Information Center

The Research and Information Center has its origins in the Shojakukan library established when the Tokyo National Museum was founded in 1872 (Meiji 5). Modeled on the British Library, it was Japan's first national library. In 1982, the museum established a research materials section, and in 1984 it created the Research and Information Center, with the role of being a center for materials about art. As well as collecting, cataloguing and preserving scholarly materials, the center also maintained a photographic card section and published research reports, with the aim of disseminating information to researchers and the public. After the closure of the research materials section in 2000, the Informatics Division has continued to oversee the museum's activities related to its library and information systems.

This exhibition presents the history of the Research and Information Center. There are precious materials including library catalogues and book reviews from when the museum had just been established, as well as materials formerly preserved in the Shojakukan library, and rare books in Chinese and Western languages. Items related to research reports are also on display, which show the activities of the former research materials section.

In connection to the museum's information systems, this exhibition introduces the course of the museum's activities of disseminating scholarly information, against a background of data management technology that has changed drastically since the center was established. The exhibition does this through basic materials and information equipment related to the museum's public-accessible databases.