[tkgally]

Thanks for the question. Somewhat to my own surprise, the proposal seemed to go through quite smoothly, and I am not aware of any concerns being raised. The university library had already released those materials on its own website and wanted them to be used widely, and it saw the opportunity to mirror them on the Internet Archive as a way to make them more easily accessible to—and findable by—people worldwide. The library staff members who did the actual work of preparing and sharing the files were quite enthusiastic about it, too.

While I am the one who initiated the project, I work in a different division of the university and did not take part in any of the meetings where the proposal was discussed and approved. I was, to be honest, a bit worried that the controversy over the IA’s National Emergency Library initiative, which was in the news around the same time, might cause some people at UTokyo to have reservations, but it doesn’t seem to have done so.

My own hope is that this tie-up will create more awareness of the Internet Archive in Japan and encourage similar projects worldwide.