Construction of a Culture-Rich Database System for Indigenous Documentary Records

The digitized collections and their associated metadata records are one of the most important electronic resources that require constant and ongoing management. Construction of an easy-to-use database system is a key and necessary part of this management effort. Due to the lack of a local classification scheme for a thematic collection, constructing a database system that is searchable by browsing through a layered knowledge map is challenging. In this chapter, the authors first summarize some useful theories and principles for constructing a user-friendly database system, then point out some database system goals, i.e., functions that are useful for such a database system. Finally, using the database system for video and photograph resources on Taiwan's indigenous people as an example, they present the solutions for achieving the goals. The purpose of this case is to demonstrate how to construct an ideal database system for the electronic resources born from digitization projects.