Kaohsiung Museum of History was founded on 25 October 1998, it was the first history museum established by the regional government nationally. Its goals are the preservation and promotion of Kaohsiung's history and culture. After the leadership of many directors, the sections and organization of the museum have become well implemented, and it is one of the Local Cultural Museums of the Ministry of Culture. The museum building was built in the Japanese colonial era and is located in the administrative center of Kaohsiung; in 2004 the Kaohsiung City government listed it as a "City Historical Site" due to its cultural and historical significance. Currently it is one of the public's the favorite places for leisure and learning among the residents of Kaohsiung.

Due to the rapid development of technology, digital archiving has become a common trend in museums all around the world. Kaohsiung Museum of History's "Archives Management System" was established in 2006, and has continuously expanded the content, now there are tens of thousands of resource entries (the majority comprises historical documents and old photographs). The database contains multiple search functions including "Themed Exhibitions", "Daily Artifact", "The Best of the Collection", "Corridor of History", "Search the Collection", "Special Collections", and "Commissioned Research" so that the users can search for information according to their needs. The collections date from the Ming dynasty, Ching dynasty to today, it includes artifacts from Taiwan, China and Japan. In ACROSS, the user can search the catalogues below:

1."Life utensils”: this catalogue holds a collection of food, clothing, home, transport, education and leisure items from daily lives. These include daily objects from eating utensils, clothes and accessories, furniture, items used at home, transport, stationery, scales and weighs, festivals and celebrations, medical equipment, leisure items and grocery items.

2."Civic Service": the collection is mainly actual objects, the categories include education, transportation, economic, legislation, army/police and weapons, political ceremonies. Important artifacts include post boxes, postal stamps, riot armor, signboards of institutions, alarms, gas masks, guns, flags,tickets, lottery tickets, bonds and other items from the field of civic service.

3."Historical Documents": these include Kaohsiung government decrees, official records, meeting minutes, collection of legislations. In addition, maps, contracts , certificates, receipts, letters, epitaphs, newspapers and other documents pertaining to the public's life.

4."Industries": the categories included in the collection are agriculture, forestry, fishery, husbandry, mining, commerce, and import and export. Kaohsiung has long been one of the major areas of Taiwan's industrial development, since the Japanese colonial era, many factories have opened, developed, moved or closed down so the majority of the collection contains trade industry items. These include information on factory construction, photographs, employee group photos etc.

5."Audio, Visual and Image": this collection includes audio-visual resources on the development of Kaohsiung and people's daily lives, as well as posters and other promotional material. Its content include food, clothing, home, transport, education, leisure, religion and politics. It is comprehensive and diverse.

Kaohsiung Museum of History uses digital photography or scanning technology to create high quality digital image files to store the image resources, this effectively reduces the access frequency of the original and decrease the risk of damage to the collection items. The establishment of this database improves archives management, increases the value-added of the artifacts, fulfils cultural heritage preservation, and provide better service to the public. Some of the image resources do not have third party authorization; please take note when utilizing the archives. For related use and license requirements, please go to the Museum official website or enquiret by telephone (07-5312560 ext.318 Ms. Chang Baoyu).