Charting New Partnerships to Support Japanese Studies in the Global Information Society: NCC's Third Decade (3-D) Conference-Background
NCC's Third Decade (3-D) Conference
An international conference March 22-23, 2010 at the University of Pennsylvania
In cooperation with Penn's Center for East Asian Studies and
The Greater Philadelphia Asian Studies Consortium Faculty Group
Gauging the Evolving Needs of the Field for Knowing More with Less:
During the coming year the NCC will survey users of Japanese resources seeking their advice about future needs. Input will be sought in person and via survey distribution at CEAL and other meetings in conjunction with AAS in Chicago in March 2009; at the Japanese Studies Association of Australia Biennial Conference in Sydney in July 2009; at the September 2009 Meeting of the European Association of Japanese Resource Specialists; at the Japan Library Forum in November 2009; and through meetings with Japanese colleagues and collaborators throughout the year.
Throughout the planning and implementation process we will work closely with the Council on East Asian Libraries and particularly its President Kristina Troost who was NCC Chair at the time of our last major planning conference in the Year 2000. NCC will also seek the involvement of leaders in the library field including, representatives of Library of Congress, OCLC, the Council on Research Libraries (CRL), the Association for Research Libraries (ARL), ALA-related groups such as the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and those who specialize in information literacy instruction (via the ILI-discussion list and others). Online surveys within East Asian studies will be circulated via the major email lists. Survey results will be incorporated into the conference webpage linking a broad range of online discussions groups in the Japan and East Asia field, via social networking software, through library networks, and instructional sites in the US, Japan and elsewhere.
Conference Outcomes and Dissemination of Information:
Cognizant of the increasingly tightened budgets of public and private institutions, a major focus of this conference will be to make use of digital technology both to present and report on the conference and also in programs that will grow from this meeting. NCC will recruit bloggers reporting in English, Japanese, and other languages to include remote participants in the conference and its products. NCC will maximize the use of online means for inviting participants, promoting the 3-D Conference, reporting on the spot, disseminating post-conference reports, announcing new programs, and for evaluating outcomes. This conference will also be reported on in print in the AAS and NCC Newsletters, in the Journal of East Asian Libraries (JEAL) and in other relevant publications in English and Japanese.
Sources of Conference Funding and Participation:
In planning its programs NCC always tries to piggyback events to economize travel expenses and the scarce time of participants. The 2010 NCC 3-D Conference has been scheduled to directly precede the meetings of the Association for Asian Studies and its Council on East Asian Libraries. NCC's 3-D Conference is already on the save-the-date lists of CEAL, the AAS and other related groups.
The Japan-US Friendship Commission has awarded principal funding for the 3-D Conference. Grants from the Japan Foundation Institutional Support Program and the Toshiba International Foundation will provide partial funding for website development, international transportation, venue costs, and post-conference dissemination. NCC is partnering with the University of Pennsylvania's Center for East Asian Studies, which will serve as local co-sponsor and on-site coordinator for the Conference. The Greater Philadelphia Asian Studies Consortium Faculty Group will further expand publicity and recruit faculty from smaller institutions throughout the region. NCC also plans to work with faculty at Drexel University's school of library and information science (The iSchool) to recruit current library students to take part in the conference.
Conclusion
NCC was created in 1991 to cooperatively develop a circulating national collection of Japanese materials, to help organize field-wide technological modernization in libraries, and to advocate for the information needs of the growing numbers of Japanese studies faculty and students at smaller institutions. In supporting such activities, NCC's first decade principally focused on developing the infrastructure for Japanese collections without walls.
Since it's Year 2000 Conference NCC has developed a growing number of programs that directly assist scholars and students in institutions without Japanese library collections or specialist librarians. Major programs have also trained a new generation of junior Japanese studies librarians and developed a cohort of 33 librarian-instructors versed in the best practices for information literacy instruction. Increasingly NCC projects are prompted by user demand and have produced successful international collaborations with vendors of digital resources and the owners of rights to visual images for teaching, research and publication.
More programs are needed that serve the undergraduate teaching enterprise and that deliver electronic resources to everyone through the Internet commons. New NCC programs must rely on building the virtual infrastructure that the Internet affords and expanding those services to all who need them. Vendors of digital resources too must continue to be an important focus of NCC work. Given the economies of scale that the Internet permits and increasingly strained budgets, more effort must be made to help both Japanese vendors and other stakeholders in Japanese cultural resources to see the diplomatic value of wider distribution of Japanese knowledge to academic institutions abroad where future leaders are being trained.
In the coming decade it will be NCC's mission to find more and better ways to serve all users and to facilitate their access to larger bodies of knowledge through digital means. The NCC's 3-D Conference will help devise new strategies that continue to leverage funds, build upon successful international cooperation, and continue to collaborate on a global basis. Working together in these ways is the key to Knowing More with Less in the financially difficult decade ahead.
In the nearly two decades since NCC began, the sources of potential knowledge on Japan have expanded beyond our wildest dreams. New forms and formats of Japanese information are fueling emerging areas of scholarship, mining bodies of knowledge rarely seen and little known 20 years ago. Yet in the presence of such potential, we face stark financial realities that dictate doing more with less, leveraging funds and opportunities with greater creativity, and collaborating as a constant strategy.
In 1991 the Japan US Friendship Commission and Japan Foundation helped launch the NCC to serve the field of Japanese studies. Since then, NCC has become a model for organizations providing infrastructural support to Japanese studies internationally. Initially focused on Japanese library resources, NCC has expanded its mandate to facilitate access to Japanese information for all users. NCC continues to leverage scarce funding, to forge enduring collaborations across great distances, and to raise awareness of the needs of faculty and students without ready access to library and information resources.
Most at risk in the new digital information environment are the undergraduate teachers. Students live in a community of global dimensions and walk into the classroom having traveled new virtual paths each day. At the same time faculty and librarians face massive budget cuts, heavier demands are placed on their time, support services are reduced, and funds for research and travel are more limited. Staying abreast in the new information environment is particularly difficult for those at smaller institutions and for new faculty members just entering the field. While the potential for access is readily available, the skill sets needed to remain current are always changing.
In its third decade NCC must lead the field in promoting broader access to information resources, supporting the knowledge creation that new media enable, and training users and librarians to make the most of the knowledge at their fingertips. In the coming decade NCC must work with vendors, funders, and colleagues to develop regional and national consortia that will work in the Internet commons to serve all those who want to learn more about Japan, in academia and beyond. The NCC's 3-D Conference in 2010, like its' predecessor the Year 2000 Conference, will help guide NCC programs to best serve these needs in the decade to come.
