I. Review of achievements since Hoover (1991)
The years since the Hoover meeting have been marked by tremendous
changes in how researchers access and use Japanese serials and newspapers
in North America. In particular, online access to periodical indexes and
other reference tools, as well as to Japanese library catalogs, is now
commonplace. International interlibrary loan and document delivery between
Japan and the U.S. is increasingly a routine matter. One thing has not
changed at all: budgetary constraints remain the primary reason for
inadequate coverage of Japanese serials and newspapers in North America.
In the midst of all this change, however, steady progress was made
toward objectives set forth by the task forces for national planning for
serials and newspapers. For a brief period (1995-96) an emphasis was
placed on Japanese scientific/technical serial literature. Due to
complexities impeding progress in that limited area, attention was then
shifted back to the more general problem of access to the full range of
Japanese serial literature from North America. In 1997 the AAU/ARL/NCC
Japan Journal Access Project was initiated as part of the Global Resources
Program. The Japan Project aims to improve access to Japanese journals in
North America (union listing; cooperative collection development;
retrospective conversion; use of document delivery sources) as well as in
Japan (cooperation with Japanese libraries; NACSIS training; e-journals).
Early emphasis and focus was placed on 1) building the infrastructure
to improve knowledge of holdings in North American libraries, and 2)
expanding access to electronic resources and Japanese collections. As a
result, collaborative collection development for current subscriptions to
and back files of Japanese serials and newspapers recommended by the
Hoover task forces has not yet been undertaken on a significant scale.
II. Summary of achievements
*Union List of Japanese Serials and Newspapers 1998 - (under
construction)
http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/ULJS/index.html
b) NACSIS and other training opportunities
* Several librarians have been sent to Japan over the past several
years to attend training programs at NACSIS and the National Diet Library,
allowing them to become familiar with use of Japanese databases and to
train others in the U.S. and Canada.
c) Cooperation with Japanese libraries
* A project with Waseda University Library for expedited interlibrary
loan and document delivery began in late 1998. As of late 1999, 17 U.S.
and Canadian libraries are participating in the project and ordering books
and photocopies from Waseda.
* A document delivery pilot project with 5 members of the Association
of National University Libraries and NACSIS and 10 U.S. libraries to
facilitate ordering and delivery of copies of journal articles and book
chapters was initiated in 1999.
d) Retrospective conversion of Japanese serials
*survey undertaken (1997); results posted to the web site
http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/NCC/survey.html
*large Japanese collections now being input into bibliographic
utilities (Harvard, UCLA, Washington)
*Waseda's WINE records added to OCLC
e) Online availability of tables of contents
*publishers making tables of contents (TOCs) increasingly available on
their web sites
*NACSIS publishing TOCs for many kiyo and other academic publications
*libraries posting Japanese TOCs to web sites (includes projects
initiated as part of the East Asian Libraries Cooperative WWW 1994-96
(funding from JUSFC& US Dept of Ed Title II-C) funding to 10
universities for development of web sites to promote resource sharing and
remote access to resources
f) Several applications for funding to underwrite cooperative
collection development for Japanese serials were unsuccessful for a
variety of reasons.
Title VI Foreign Periodicals Program (1992), IMLS (1998), and VI Sec
606 (1999)
III. General Setting
Publishing: The number of serials published in Japan continues to
increase, up from 18,081 titles published by 10,038 institutions in 1989
to 22,624 titles published by 13,048 institutions in 1998. (Zasshi Shinbun
Sokatarogu 1990 & 1999 editions) Formats are increasingly varied, with
some white papers and newspaper backfiles now being issued on CD-ROM or
DVD. Comparatively few publishers are marketing e-journals in a
coordinated manner, the way US/European e-journals are now licensed.
Behind the scenes, though, publishers are getting ready to issue
electronic journals and/or versions of current journals. The National Diet
Library is actively involved in coordinating this evolution. Some archival
materials (Mainichi photo archives, for example) are accessible over the
web.
Libraries: Of the 33 U.S. and Canadian libraries reporting more than
100 titles of current Japanese serials in the CEAL survey for 1990 (CEAL
Bulletin 92), only 8 showed a decline by the 1998 survey (JEAL 117). All
others reported increases. Still, the extent of increase was relatively
small when compared to the total output of serials in Japan. Overall,
there has not been much progress made in expanding the total number of
unique Japanese serial titles acquired nationally. Over the past decade,
many libraries have improved their interlibrary loan/document delivery
capabilities, in part because they are not able to collect as
comprehensively as they would like.
Researchers: Scholars increasingly are familiar with and adept at using
Japanese electronic resources. The range of primary and secondary sources
being used by scholars continues to expand, especially into such areas as
popular culture and local/regional studies. Many faculty and students are
of a mindset that local ownership is still preferable to remote access,
however well coordinated.
IV. Issues
a) Related to serials and cooperative collection development
*Funding
Should funding for new titles come from canceling duplicated titles or
from a competitive grant on a matching basis (like MVS)? The latter was
recommended by the task force that produced a report on Japanese materials
for the ARL Foreign Acquisitions Project in 1993. In the case of serials,
what should the priorities be for external funding? Would Japanese
collections be able to leverage additional support (from their own
institutions or from funding agencies) by re-directing serial funds
cooperatively to expand the number of unique titles available nationally
for researchers to use?
*Licensing
Already some databases are available (Nichigai Web Service, etc). We know
that there will be more, along with electronic journals and other
publications. Individual libraries will not be able to afford
subscriptions to everything. We should begin to develop expertise in
approaching Japanese publishers for cooperative licensing arrangements
that make subscriptions to these services available as widely as possible
in North America. Is there potential for applying funding from JUSFC/JF to
help make such services more widely available?
*Core/periphery
At the Hoover meeting there seemed to be general consensus on core and
periphery with regard to journal publications. As scholarly interests
expand and diversify, it becomes harder to determine those boundaries. Are
these terms still meaningful and useful in this context?
*Commitment
Coordinated collection development implies making a commitment to collect
a particular title for a certain period of time, especially in the case of
unique titles. Does this create problems when local priorities shift?
*National coordination/local initiatives/workgroups
How to coordinate cooperative collection development of serials and
newspapers is an issue. The Hoover serials task force recommended a task
force that would evaluate the extent of duplication of particular titles,
keep abreast of new titles, and actively encourage libraries to shift
funds to new titles. Another alternative is to set a target of a specific
amount of money/percentage of budget to be shifted at each participating
institution on a voluntary basis. Yet another possibility would be to
establish groups coordinating specific categories/topics.
*Should libraries provide table of contents as part of their commitment
to collect unique serial titles in a national project?
*Backfiles
Should a special project to encourage filling in back files of serials be
established (similar to MVS)? Recommended in the 1993 ARL task force
report. Or should this continue to be included as part of MVS?
*Government documents *Regional documentation *Grey literature
Should coverage of gov docs/local serials/grey lit be the focus of a
special projects or be included as part of overall serial coordination?
The Japan Documentation Center at the Library of Congress improved access
to Japanese grey literature through acquisitions and abstracting services.
Now that the JDC project is coming to an end should any initiatives be
undertaken to reduce negative impacts?
*Gaps in collections
Should there be a concerted effort to acquire missing volumes and issues
to ensure complete runs of titles?
*Material not held in Japan
Is there a need to identify and collect titles not held by Japanese
libraries but of interest to scholars (such as popular materials)?
b) Related to the union list
*The current union list is a separate union list. Does it need to
continue as a separate, stand-alone union list? Or, should it be merged
into OCLC and/or RLIN?
*Z39.50 access is making interconnections to library catalogs easier -
should the union list exploit this technology as a basis for its
development? Should patron-initiated ordering be added?
*Union list was initiated largely to be a repository for decisions
about cooperative collecting - it has yet to be used in this way - should
it?
* Comments and suggestions about how to develop the union list have
been received - how should such comments (sometimes conflicting) be
resolved? Would a more active advisory committee help? Distributing input
of records/holdings has been suggested - how should the work of
participants/volunteers be coordinated?
c) Related to newspapers
Hoover task force recommended: 1) acquire complete files of 5 national
newspapers in each region of the US, 2) recommend microfilm instead of
reduced print versions for newspapers, 3) extend coverage of backfiles to
other titles. Is this still the best approach?
In 1993 the task force that prepared a report on Japanese materials for
the ARL Foreign Acquisitions Project recommended that one complete file of
each of the four major newspapers (Mainichi, Nihon Keizai, Sankei and
Yomiuri) be ensured in research libraries of North America. They also
suggested CRL increase its holdings of Japanese newspapers (only Asahi is
held at CRL). Would CRL be a good location for holding all of the
newspaper back files? Will the upcoming change of CRL.$B!G.(Bs leadership
affect our preferences? How should the funding of these titles be
arranged? ( foundations, CRL-type newspaper project, the responsibility of
individual libraries?)
Electronic indexes to and full text databases of Japanese newspapers
are becoming widespread, but often with price tags and/or pricing
arrangements that put them out of the reach of most North American
research libraries. Are consortial licensing arrangements possible? Which
databases are of most interest to our users? What can we do to make these
resources more widely accessible to our users?
d) Related to access
Is providing access to materials not held by North American libraries
needed or important? If yes, is providing access to Japanese libraries as
important as building local collections? Are there other libraries/subject
areas/collections that could serve as future pilots? What about the
technical infrastructure needed to request of and receive from Japanese
libraries (not on OCLC, not using Ariel, etc.)? What about the Japanese
copyright law that is interpreted to prohibit electronic transmission? How
can we overcome the hurdles of payments in different currencies?
Is there a need to establish closer cooperation with the Japanese
Information Center for Science and Technology? Are there other
organizations with which we should establish ties?
Is a current awareness service a useful/necessary component to improve
remote access to Japanese serials?
e) Other general issues
What about the scalability of any and all of these initiatives?
What are the financial implications of these initiatives and proposals?
Who will finance the add-on costs of the administration of the various
projects and initiatives?
How do we evaluate the success of the project? If the goal of the Japan
Journal Access Project is to expand access to research materials published
in Japan and to coordinate Japanese collection development activities in
North American libraries, how can we measure the extent to which the
Project is meeting that goal?
V. Proposals
a) Initiate a cooperative collection development project for
Japanese serials
Is a cooperative collection development project still desirable and
needed? Should the project identify subject areas not collected in the US
and Canada? What about primary source materials? How extensive should this
project be?
Assuming a project is needed, how do we go about deciding on the details such
as Number of titles? Amount of money to be redirected? Other ways to
participate? Type of management? Nationally coordinated? Individual
initiative? Set by dollar amount or number of titles or other criteria, or
group (subject, type of publication etc.)? Extent of commitment?
Length of time? Responsibility for TOCs, etc.?
b) Initiate a project to collect Japanese newspaper backfiles
Is this a project that could be funded by JUSFC? Start with the major
newspapers and continue to all others for which backfiles on microfilm are
available? Keep at CRL? Keep in individual libraries?
c) Extend union list to include decisions made for cooperative
collection development
Is it desirable to distribute development and maintenance of the union list
to contributors? What information needs to be added to make the union list
a useful tool for selecting/deselecting titles?
Should table of contents be included? If yes, how should they be
posted? Centrally as part of the union list or is a distributed manner,
according to the preferences of each institution -- is there a preferred
methodology?
d) Develop one or more document delivery projects with Japanese
libraries
Are there specific types of materials that are difficult to obtain from North
American libraries? If yes, what types? Is there a need to borrow books
and microfilm or should the projects be limited to photocopies? Should we
consider libraries in other countries or document suppliers when thinking about
pilots?
e) Set up a task force to investigate the possibilities for consortial
licensing
There are a number of Japanese databases, such as Nichigai Web Service, or
the various newspaper files that are not widely subscribed by North American
libraries. Is there interest in developing a license for selected titles
that would be available to the entire community? Can NCC negotiate on our
behalf? Or is there another organization that could negotiate a successful
license? What are the barriers that might prevent such licensing?
Which titles are the best candidates for licensed access?
