Digitization of Chinese Ancient Books in the Context of Digital Humanities: Research Overview and Future Prospects

Abstract

Ancient books are the treasures of the Chinese nation which occupy a pivotal position in the global civilization’s development. The deep exploration and effective utilization of books’ contents can effectively promote the unique Chinese wisdom. As an emerging interdisciplinary research method, digital humanities provides a novel theoretical framework and technical support for the digitization of Chinese ancient books. This study focuses on the research of the digitization of Chinese ancient books under the framework of digital humanities in the past decade. It aims to reveal the core characteristics of its practical process and summaries the future development trends. This paper first outlines the research overview and importance of the digitization of Chinese ancient books. Subsequently, it elaborates on the applications and contents of digital humanities technologies in three key areas: ancient book research, promotion and collation of ancient books. Then, from the four dimensions of construction concept, service model, talent structure, and technical application, this paper summarizes the main characteristics of current practices in the digitization of ancient books. Based on this, the paper further points out several limitations in the process of ancient book digitization. The improvement strategies are proposed to address these limitations. The rise of digital humanities has greatly promoted the deep integration of humanities disciplines and technology. However, the journey of ancient book digitization still faces a series of challenges and obstacles, such as the different data processing standards and the shortage of professionals in ancient book digitization. Therefore, exploring effective strategies to overcome these challenges in the field of ancient book digitization has become an urgent research topic in academia.