22Information Resources Center (IRC) ■The purposeAs a part of ILCAA, the Information Resources Center (IRC-ILCAA http://irc.aa.tufs.ac.jp) was established in 1997. Its main purpose is to compile and store information resources of languages and cultures of Asia and Africa and make them available to the academic community and beyond, with a view to develop inter-institutional and international academic exchange. ■Background and guidelinesILCAA has been enriching multi-purpose databases of historical, ethnological, and social studies, while digitalizing the data of Asian and African languages and analyzing each language phonologically, syntactically, and lexicologically. This database provides basic information on editing dictionaries and grammars of Asian and African languages, which is one of the primary activities of the Institute. It is accessible to scholars throughout Japan. With the above mentioned activities as the basis, IRC has been rening the theoretical and applied aspects of the following:(1) Publication of contents on Asian and African languages and cultures : Besides the language data mentioned above, the Institute has a large number of brochures, posters, photographs, 8-mm lms, video tapes etc., containing linguistic, cultural, and historical data. Accessing this data has not been easy even within the Institute, not to mention from outside. IRC, therefore, continues to organize the data with a view to make it accessible to the public.(2) Developing international inter-university studies : We intend to make international inter-university studies more efcient and fruitful, through prompting sharing of resources such as databases, electronic dictionaries, image-libraries internationally, as well as setting up an environment for research support based on them.(3) Preparation for the basic organization of the contents and exchange : It is an urgent task to formalize the elds which have hardly had a theoretical preparation yet, such as coded character sets, evaluation regarding the theory of diachronic texts, multiple-language processing, collation in multiple-script environment, fundamentals of typesetting and page-description. Furthermore, plans are underway to rene the methods of multiple script data input, exchange protocols of type-setting, and to take part in input methods and interface on the multimedia system such as search and access of images, animation, and phonetic abstracts. ■Further development of IRCSince its foundation in 1997, IRC has steadily carried on storing data, compiling them in the form of linguistic maps and electronic dictionaries, and publicizing them. Based on the results, IRC has begun the research activities below, to ‘enhance the partnership with researchers here and abroad for compilation and shared use of research resources’ as stated in the midterm plan of ILCAA.(1) Organization of research resources: summing up technical know-hows accumulated so far and enterprising their application, elaboration and dissemination(2) Enhanced transmission of research resources, e.g., through enrichment of contents of IRC website(3) Promotion of sharing digitized research resources in academic community, and exploration of research methods based on the shared material(4) Developing joint research with research units of ILCAA, as well as pursuing topics of cooperative international research on its own(5) Promoting joint researches, especially in conjunction with junior researchers outside of ILCAA, based on research methods developed at IRC ■Principal enterprises of the yearFirst, IRC is conducting projects constructing databases and research resources of primary data of Asian and African languages and cultures, with not only the IRC members and other ILCAA staff but also in cooperation with outside researchers.Second, IRC is strengthening research activities in cooperation with research units and programs at ILCAA and at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, such as Field Linguistic Unit and the Global COE program ‘Corpus-based Linguistics and Language Education’ and ‘Linguistic Dynamics Science Project’.Third, IRC is continuing the IRC internal project ‘Historical Traces Left in Place Names’.Fourth, IRC is holding workshops in order to make its projects open to outside researchers and beyond.
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