The term "digital archives" refers to digital databases of the collections at institutions such as libraries, museums, and national archives. For example, the National Diet Library Digital Collections is one such digital archive.

The National Diet Library Search allows users to search digital archives of cultural institutions in Japan. A list of searchable archives is available in Japanese at cooperation destination.

This search guide describes digital archives as well as portal sites for simultaneously searching multiple digital archives that have been made available free of charge to the general public by major cultural institutions of China, Taiwan, and Korea.

1. China

• The National Digital Library of China (National Library of China)
  This site is for searching materials digitized by the National Library of China and digital data provided by other institutions, such as public libraries. Some categories, such as "数字古籍 (Numbered Ancient Books)" and "民国时期文献 (Documents from the Republic of China period)," allow online access to the full text of the materials.

• China Academic Digital Associative Library(CADAL)
  CADAL is an international digitization project led primarily by university libraries in China. Individuals who do not belong to a participating institution are able to register and search for materials, but only old materials are accessible online.

• Han Dian Chong Guang(Alibaba Cloud)
  This platform is the result of the 汉典重光 (Han Dian Chong Guang) project, which is a project to digitally collect and publish classical Chinese manuscripts located outside of China. 200,000 pages of classical Chinese manuscripts owned by the University of California, Berkeley, were made available as the first phase of the platform when it was launched in May 2021. Images are converted to text using OCR, and a text search function is also provided.

• Baidu Baike Museums Project(Baidu Encyclopedia)
  This is the website of the Digital Museum Project by the Chinese online encyclopedia Baidu Encyclopedia. As of August 2024, more than 600 museums in China are listed on the website. The website also provides a "博物馆检索 (Museum Search)" function that allows users to search for museums by location or name.

• Digital Cultural Relics Library of the Palace Museum(The Palace Museum)
  This is a digital database of images from the collection of the National Palace Museum in Beijing, China, containing over 100,000 images as of August 2024. It provides search functions by category, period, and color, and has an English-language interface.

2. Taiwan

• Digital Taiwan (Academia Sinica)
  This site is for searching the content of digital collections at institutions in Taiwan such as the Academia Sinica, the National Central Library, and the Academia Historica. Accessibility to content differs for each participating institutions. It has also link to related English-lauguage site, although the site have limited functionality.

• Collections, Ministry of Culture (Ministry of Culture)
  This site is for searching the content of collections and publications at 60 museums such as the National Taiwan Museum, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Museum of Taiwan History.

• Archives Cross Boundaries(National Archives Administration, National Development Council)
  This site is for searching the content of 77 digital archives run by 32 different archives, museums, and other institutions in Taiwan. Accessibility of content differs for each participating institution.

• Taiwan E-Book (National Central Library, Taiwan)
  This site is a digital archive of 38,000 books and government publications that were issued from 1911 to 1949.

• Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank (Ministry of Culture)
  The site includes content from over 3.13 million items collected by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with county and city governments, private organizations, central and interagency organizations, and museums. This content is licensed under the Creative Commons License, which allows users to search for reusable content.

3. Korea

• Korean Memory (National Library of Korea)
  Korean Memory is a project by the National Library of Korea to digitize various cultural resources held by cultural institutions across the country, including libraries, museums, and art galleries, and provide them with curation. This site is the digital platform for this project.
  In addition to written materials, images, videos, audio, and oral history materials are registered, and some of the full text can be viewed.
  As of July 2024, 44 institutions participate in this platform.

• National Digital Library (National Library of Korea)
  This site is for searching the content of digital archives at the National Library of Korea and 7 other institutions in Korea. Accessibility of content differs for each participating institution.

• Korean Studies Data Platform (The Academy of Korean Studies)
  This is an integrated search system for databases built by 28 institutions, including the Academy of Korean Studies, the National Institute of Korea History, and the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies at Seoul National University. You can search for history-related materials such as books, documents, periodicals, and research materials, and some of the original texts can also be viewed.

• Korea National Heritage Portal (Cultural Heritage Administration)
  This site is for searching information resources related to cultural artifacts owned by institutions such as the Cultural Heritage Administration. It contains digitized photographs and images.

Related search guide

• Digital archives which allow easy secondary use (Libraries in Japan)
• Digital archives which allow easy secondary use (Museums)