Makoto Okamoto discusses the saveMLAK project, which aims to archive information about cultural facilities damaged in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The project launched a wiki for volunteers to document over 800 damaged museums, libraries, and community centers across 18 affected prefectures. This provides a more comprehensive character-based database than other archiving projects focused primarily on images. The saveMLAK wiki seeks to record details of overall damages beyond what has been documented and ensure materials from across eastern and western Japan are preserved.

1. AAS Roundtable Archiving Disaster in the Digital Age Japan Since March 11
Makoto Okamoto (Academic Resource Guide, Inc. / saveMLAK Project)
# Introduction
Hi, I’m Makoto Okamoto, the President and Producer of Academic Resource Guide,
Inc. and the Project Leader of saveMLAK project.
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It’s a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity to report from Japan to you.
And I want to say “Thank you” for all of your kind supports to Japan after March eleven.
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# Activity of saveMLAK
The very next day of March eleven, I and others started saveMLAK project which

2. AAS Roundtable Archiving Disaster in the Digital Age Japan Since March 11
Makoto Okamoto (Academic Resource Guide, Inc. / saveMLAK Project)
is relief aid for museums, libraries, archives and Kominkans. Kominkan is a kind of
community center in Japan.
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One of our activities is collecting and sharing what kind of damages they had and
what kind of relief they need.
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To realize this, we have been engaged in three actions.
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First, we launched a Wiki system on which everyone can enter and edit

3. AAS Roundtable Archiving Disaster in the Digital Age Japan Since March 11
Makoto Okamoto (Academic Resource Guide, Inc. / saveMLAK Project)
information like Wikipedia.
Second, we asked people on Twitter to participate in editing this Wiki and we are
using Twitter and other social media to communicate with our supporters.
Third, we held off-line meet-up ten times to disseminate how to edit our Wiki and
to encourage each other.
Since March twelve, we have continued our activities and maintained our Wiki for
a year.
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As a result, more than three hundred people joined and created more than twenty
two thousand pages. Now we also collect and share information of eight hundred damaged
museums, libraries archives and kominkans. We can say that our saveMLAK Wiki is the
only portal to collect and share all information of cultural facilities damaged by earthquake
and tsunami.
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From our huge data, we provided data of external links to each facility to JD
archive of Harvard and Internet Archive as the seeds for their crawling and archiving.

4. AAS Roundtable Archiving Disaster in the Digital Age Japan Since March 11
Makoto Okamoto (Academic Resource Guide, Inc. / saveMLAK Project)
# Significance of saveMALK
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Then, what is the significance of our activities? I would like to point out two
aspects of the saveMLAK project that indicate the desired direction for archiving activities.
One is the objects for archiving and the other is the range of archiving.
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First, now in Japan, there are a lot of digital archiving projects. For example,
Yahoo! JAPAN, Google, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster
Prevention and National Diet Library are trying to build their archive to record and
memorize this tragedy. Of course, these projects are very important. But, as you may know,
using only images and movies as media was insufficient to capture the reality of the
tragedy.
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5. AAS Roundtable Archiving Disaster in the Digital Age Japan Since March 11
Makoto Okamoto (Academic Resource Guide, Inc. / saveMLAK Project)
On the other hand, our saveMLAK Wiki is a character-based database. This is
another type of digital archiving of disaster. It is as important as archiving by photos and
movies. In damaged area, there are so many different kinds of facilities and functions like
stores, hospitals, fire houses, cop shops, schools, banks, hotels, and so on. But even now,
unlike museums, libraries, archives and kominkans, details of the overall damages of such
facilities and functions are not yet known. The actual situation of such damages must be
recorded and memorized by recording by not only photos and videos but characters and
archiving as well.
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Second, the majority of archival projects focuses on the three worst-hit prefectures,
Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. On the other hand, saveMLAK wiki covers eighteen
prefectures damaged by earthquake and tsunami regardless of the extent of the damage.
Not only Tohoku area, but Hokkaido, Kanto and Chubu should also be considered as
damaged areas. In short, archiving activities should target entire east Japan. In addition,
after March eleventh, not only in east Japan but in west Japan, various activities and
materials emerged regarding the tragedy. These materials must also be archived.
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6. AAS Roundtable Archiving Disaster in the Digital Age Japan Since March 11
Makoto Okamoto (Academic Resource Guide, Inc. / saveMLAK Project)
In my presentation, I pointed out two aspects. One is the objects for archiving and
the other is the range of archiving. We have to think from various perspectives and try to
record and archive disaster in various ways.
# Conclusion
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When we discuss the topic “Archiving Disaster in the Digital Age Japan Since
March eleven” after our short presentation, I want to add this point of view.
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Our saveMLAK Project is still continuing to edit and maintain our Wiki for

7. AAS Roundtable Archiving Disaster in the Digital Age Japan Since March 11
Makoto Okamoto (Academic Resource Guide, Inc. / saveMLAK Project)
archiving and sharing and to support recovery of MLAKs in Tohoku now and we need
financial support. Then…
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Please donate to us after our roundtable. We can give you our original goods like
T-Shirts, Eco bug and a set of file and postcard, in appreciation of your kindness. Thank
you.