By Saranya Satheesh
Unfamiliar reading
Unlike my previous engagements with other collections, the Japanese collection felt distant and unfamiliar. My only reference point for Japan was Doraemon, and I had no deep understanding of the language or culture. When I came across Ebisu Diary, I was struck by the vertical, right-to-left script—a format I had never encountered before.
Technology mediating the knowledge
To navigate the challenge faced, I turned to Google Translate and image translation tools, but each translation slightly altered the meaning, making it challenging to follow the original intent.
As I attempted to read, I realised that my understanding was shaped not by the text itself, but by the technology mediating it.
- What was I really engaging with?
- Was I reading Ebisu Diary, or was I interacting with a distorted, fragmented version of it?
This felt like a constant negotiation with the text—between what the technology could show me and what I could infer from it.
How metadata influences the knowledge
Engaging with the Japanese Collection of the LCC Library, I discovered that the collection was uncatalogued. It led me to rethink not just the content of the collection, but how knowledge is structured, mediated, and accessed. I asked myself:
- From whose perspective is the cataloguing done?
- What metadata is assigned, and what is left out?
- How could metadata be reimagined to centre diverse perspectives and promote social justice?