http://hangingtogether.org/?p=337 give some information on digitization efforts in Japan.

There is are a lot of unknown digitization projects in Japan which are making works available in Western languages. Since years I am collecting these projects with special focus on rare books before 1800 at
http://wiki.netbib.de/coma/DigiMisc

But nobody takes notice of this link list and I do not know any other comparable link list available in a western language.

Here is an updated list of digital collections I know (please take into account that I cannot read Japanese)

Doshisha University
Digital archive of rare materials
http://elib.doshisha.ac.jp/english/digital/index.html
Plaese note that also the departments have rare materials in foreign languages digitized.

Gunma University
Repository (DSpace)
https://gair.media.gunma-u.ac.jp/dspace/index.jsp
Some works (browse by date, oldest first)

Hitotsubashi University
The Burt Franklin Collection
http://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/da/handle/123456789/19
Works in French.

Keio University
Treasures
http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/treasures/
Only Gutenberg bible and Gesner's Thierbuch complete online
- Repository
http://koara-a.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/listitem.php?index_id=3228
4 Kulmus works

Kyoto University
http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2433/14/browse-title?starts_with=A
Some rare books.

Kyushu University
http://www.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/db/local/?skinid=11
It seems that only the Grotius is complete online.

Osaka City University
http://libweb.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/els-e.html
400+ books! See
http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/4263195/ (in German)

Toin University
Savigny Library
http://savigny.toin.ac.jp/
Some rare books, see
http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/3424602/ (in German)

University of Tokyo
Books of Mori Ogei
http://rarebook.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ogai/foreign.html
The books are not completely digitized but unfortunately only the pages with Ogei marginalia.

Center for Research on Pictorial Cultural Resources, University Tokyo
http://www.picure.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/theme/index_j.html
http://www.picure.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sitemap/index_e.html
Image databases (Piranesi etc). Links of the English version don't work.

Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/
Some works.

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
C-DATS Digital Library
http://www.dilins.c-dats.tufs.ac.jp/da_lists/full_images.html
http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/handle/10108/29
Including at least one work before 1800

Tsukuba University
Digital Collections - Rare Books
http://www.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp/pub/tree/kichosho.eng.html
Large (hundreds of books)
Click on this sign to see the digital books.

Waseda University
CLASSICS
Search the OPAC, e.g.
http://wine.wul.waseda.ac.jp/search/X?SEARCH=jap*&l=&m=v&searchscope=12&Da=&Db=&SORT=D

There might be some other stuff I don't know!

http://images.nypl.org/?id=833303

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071227-nonprofits-aim-to-scan-60-million-pages-of-government-docs.html

While government sometimes has a reputation for not being able to do anything right, there's one thing it has proven supremely good at over the years: generating mountains of official documents. The Internet Archive, Public.Resource.Org, and the Boston Public Library today announced a plan to scan more than 60 million pages of these government documents over the next two years, with plans to make them freely available in perpetuity.

Note that such documents are in the Public Domain in the US!



Read also:

http://resource.org/8_principles.html

Open Government Data Principles

Government data shall be considered open if it is made public in a way that complies with the principles below:

1. Complete
All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.

2. Primary
Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.

3. Timely
Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.

4. Accessible
Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.

5. Machine processable
Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.

6. Non-discriminatory
Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.

7. Non-proprietary
Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.

8. License-free
Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.

Compliance must be reviewable.
Definitions
1. “public” means:

The Open Government Data principles do not address what data should be public and open. Privacy, security, and other concerns may legally (and rightly) prevent data sets from being shared with the public. Rather, these principles specify the conditions public data should meet to be considered “open.”
2. “data” means:

Electronically stored information or recordings. Examples include documents, databases of contracts, transcripts of hearings, and audio/visual recordings of events.

While non-electronic information resources, such as physical artifacts, are not subject to the Open Government Data principles, it is always encouraged that such resources be made available electronically to the extent feasible.
3. “reviewable” means:

A contact person must be designated to respond to people trying to use the data.

A contact person must be designated to respond to complaints about violations of the principles.

An administrative or judicial court must have the jurisdiction to review whether the agency has applied these principles appropriately.

Update to http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/4562544/ (in German)

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007/12/egyptian-law-would-put-ancient.html
http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2007/12/you-can-walk-like-king-tut-but-dont.html
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#Egypt_to_copyright_pyramids

See also

King Tut

On the Italian law see:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#A_few_news_about_copyright_laws_in_Italy

On the Greece case see
Wikimedia Commons

On Copyfraud see with instructive examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyfraud

http://Archivopedia.com ...focuses on the management and research of primary source materials....

The wiki encyclopedia is open for anyone to edit and contains information relevant to archivists, librarians, public historians, and museum professionals [such as news headlines, job ads, grant notices, teaching modules, and a terminology guide]....

In addition to the wiki, the site offers a search engine specially customized to find primary source materials around the world by keyword. This feature takes advantage of open source / open access initiatives and is designed to promote repository collections containing original materials by enabling researchers the opportunity to find and link to collections and specific items held at various repositories that might interest them in a single search.

Source: http://libsite.org/node/169

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

President Bush has now signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764), which includes this provision.

More:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html



(c) Thowi, CC-BY-ND

Photo by Donaldist

http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/review/gregory-crane

Excerpt:

The repository movement has, as yet, failed to exert a significant impact upon intellectual life. Libraries have failed to articulate what they can provide and, far more often, have failed to provide repository services of compelling interest. Repository efforts remain fragmented: small, locally customized projects that are not interoperable--insofar as they operate at all. Administrations have failed to show leadership. Happy to complain about exorbitant prices charged by publishers, they have not done the one thing that would lead to serious change: implement a transitional period by the end of which only publications deposited within the institutional repository under an open access license will count for tenure, promotion, and yearly reviews. Of course, senior faculty would object to such action, content with their privileged access to primary sources through expensive subscriptions. Also, publications in prestigious venues (owned and controlled by ruthless publishers) might be lost. Unfortunately, faculty have failed to look beyond their own immediate needs: verbally welcoming initiatives to open our global cultural heritage to the world but not themselves engaging in any meaningful action that will make that happen.