NCC Chair's Recent Activities: Report

 

NCC Chair's Recent Activities: Report


August 2004-January 2005
Toshie Marra

Reporting NCC Activities:

East Asian Academic Librarians of California (EAALC) Meeting, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Sept. 17, 2004:
Cathy Chiu of UC Santa Barbara and I collaboratively made a report on the NCC's Training the Trainers (T-3)Workshop held at UCLA in August 2004.

Workshop on Information Literacy Education in a Digital Age, International House of Japan, Tokyo, Dec. 9, 2004:
Reported on the NCC's T-3 initiative and its future plans.

Visiting NCC-Related Institutions in Japan: Nov. 29-Dec. 17, 2004

Japan Studies Information Specialists Training (JSIST) Program, Nov. 29-Dec. 17:
Seventeen librarians and researchers in Japanese studies from all over the world, including myself, participated in the JSIST Program sponsored by the Japan Foundation and the National Diet Library. The Program consisted of numerous lectures on a variety of subjects by instructors from the NDL and other institutions and the visits to many libraries and research institutions such as Keio University Mita Media Center, University of Tokyo Library, Kyoto University Library, the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the National Institute of Informatics, the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, and the Nara National Museum. The Program also included the "Workshop on Information Literacy Education in a Digital Age," held at the International House of Japan (I-House) on Dec. 9, and the "International Seminar, Document Delivery Services in a Digital Age," held at NDL Kansaikan on Dec. 15.

Below are some points of interest from the Program for NCC's perspectives:

NDL:
Kindai Digital Library: Will complete digitization of all 170,000 books from the Meiji period by the end of 2005. WARP: Will continue the project. Final report on acquisition of online publications was submitted on Dec. 9, 2004 by the Legal Deposit System Council (http://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/aboutus/deposit_council_book.html). Collaborative Reference Database Project: The database will be open to public from April 2005. The project has ca. 150 participating libraries including over 50 university libraries, and has accumulated 11,000 records of reference transactions. Zasshi Kiji Sakuin Database will include article citations in science and technology covering the period from 1950 and 1974, which will be gradually seen from the next fiscal year (the project goes from 2004 to 2008).

NIJL:
From April 2004, NIJL became a part of the Inter-University Research Institute Corporation, National Institutes for the Humanities 大学共同利用機関法人人間文化研究機構, with the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, the National Museum of Ethnology, and the National Museum of Japanese History. Kotenseki Sogo Mokuroku Database (http://base1.nijl.ac.jp/~koten/ksearch.html) which includes bibliographic and holdings information of Japanese books and manuscripts originally produced before 1868 and held at Japanese and overseas collections has become available on the web since February 2004. NIJL hopes to digitize their rare holdings so that they could provide access to full text, possibly with charges. NIJL would like to consider joining the GIF Project next year.

NII:
From April 2004, NII became a part of the Inter-University Research Institute Corporation, Research Organization of Information and Systems 大学共同利用機関法人情報・システム研究機構. In April 2005, NII will release GeNii (http://ge.nii.ac.jp), NII's new academic contents portal system, which will navigate users for information through CiNii, Webcat Plus, Kaken, etc., and Academic Research Database Repository (http://dbr.nii.ac.jp/) consisting of a variety of specialized databases which will be eventually a part of GeNii and be linked to Webcat Plus and CiNii. GeNii will be available to overseas scholars and institutions by subscription (¥50,000 per year for an institution with less than 100 users in Japanese studies).

GIF:
Regarding ILL/DD with North American libraries, Mr. Ikuo Sasakawa noted in his presentation at NII that cancellation rate in the total statistics for the past three years was remarkably high (45% of total requests from Japanese libraries and 72% of total requests from North American libraries were denied) and that workshops and/or manuals would be helpful for both North American and Japan sides to improve the services. Mr. Hitoshi Hayase talked about the development of the GIF Project with Korean libraries: a system testing was done in July 2004, and preliminary trial between 5 Korean and 4 Japanese university libraries was conducted between August and September 2004; ILL/DD project with 226 Korean and 60 Japanese libraries has begun in November 2004 with transactions handled by KERIS agents; ILL/DD with GIF is scheduled to be introduced in October 2005. Both North American and Japan sides should work together to make GIF Project global and help other partners who wants to join the project.

Government Data Research Center of Japan 政府資料等普及調査会:

Its database and copy service is available for individuals for ¥120,000 per year. Trial access is available for a month. Nichibunken:
Has digitized (or will digitize) this year 142 erotic picture books, the Dojoji Emaki scroll, and several texts of Meisho zue of Kyoto from the Edo period, all owned by Nichibunken. Prof. Atsushi Aiba explained that Mr. Sadao Takeda, Director of the Database Promotion Center, could not find a solution through his connection for the problem we brought up in February 2004, i.e., fair use defined in the Japan's copy right law applies to Japanese schools only, but not to overseas academic institutions, and that Prof. Aiba would inquire this problem with someone else.

Workshop on Information Literacy Education in a Digital Age:
Part one began with introductory remarks by Ms. Sharon Domier, which was followed by presentations on the information literacy programs developed at five academic libraries: Keio University (by Ms. Michiyo Yanase), University of Tokyo (by Ms. Ako Iizuka), University of Sidney (by Ms. Riri Otsuka), Manitoba University, Canada (by Asako Yoshida), and University of Washington (by Ms. Keiko Yokota-Carter). The session was closed with a presentation on key points of information literacy education by Ms. Domier. The part two consists of two presentations on the workshop programs with which participants are trained in information literacy instruction: Ms. Megumi Narusawa of NII introduced its workshops for instructors of information literacy at academic institutions in Japan (情報リテラシー教育担当者研修), and I presented the NCC's T-3 Workshops.

International Seminar, Document Delivery Services in a Digital Age:
Ms. Mary Jackson, Director of Collections and Access Programs, Association of Research Libraries, discussed 10 key trends that might play important roles in future document delivery services in a talk entitled "the Future of document delivery services." Mr. Mat Pfleger, Head of Sales and Marketing, British Library, in his talk "Vision and strategy: Document supply in the digital age," discussed the BL's ways to provide users with resources for research in response to the changes that the document supply (or information) industry is currently undergoing. Mr. Uwe Rosemann, Director of the German National Library of Science and Technology, University Library Hannover, introduced in his talk "Current trends in German library services: subito and vascoda" a document delivery service Subito, a project supported by BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research), with which requested materials are electronically delivered from 33 libraries to end-users in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland or to participating institutions, and Vascoda, a new portal for scientific information sponsored by BMBF and DFG (German Research Foundation), with which more than forty German institutions are working together to offer researchers a one-stop-shop for all scientific information in all document types, born-digital as well as digitized and print materials.

On the last day of the seminar, a JSIST program review session was held with 17 trainees and the representatives from JF, NDL, and I-House. All the trainees expressed their satisfaction with the program contents and strongly encouraged the program's continuation. Some of the issues discussed include the timing of the seminar and a possibility of having separate sessions for participants of different levels of experience. At the end of the program, a letter signed by all the 17 participants in support for the JSIST program's continuation was submitted to JF and NDL.

News:  Nagoya University will host the International Advanced Digital Library Conference on Aug. 25-26, 2005.

Meeting with ACE Japan staff, Nov. 30, 2004:
Met with Mr. Sadahisa Okada, Secretary General, and Ms. Junko Kanamaru, Librarian, for a dinner. Mr. Okada shared with me their feeling of relief, now that the National Art Center, Tokyo, will continue the Art Catalog Library project. The transfer of over 20,000 volumes of art catalogs collection is believed to lead to a constructive development for both ACE Japan and the National Art Center. The collection was scheduled to be transferred to the new museum in early December.

Visit to the Office of Planning and Development, the National Art Center, Tokyo, Dec. 2, 2004:
With assistance from Ms. Izumi Koide, a meeting with staffs of the National Art Center, Tokyo (Mr. Tetsuo Miki, Vice Director, Office of Planning and Development, Mr. Osamu Fukunaga, Chief Curator, and Mr. Takeshi Mizutani, Librarian), ACE Japan (Mr. Okada and Ms. Kanamaru), and myself was arranged. The National Art Center s scheduled to be open in January 2007, and its library will have a reading room and reference service available to visitors every day except Tuesday. Three major undertakings of the Center are hosting exhibitions, collecting and providing information on art field, and educating public by hosting lectures, workshops, etc. Exhibition catalogs for the Freer Gallery Library and the University of Pittsburgh Library are going to be shipped from Ace Japan in 2005 and from the National Art Center in 2006 and later.

Visit to Japan Publications Trading Co., Dec. 4, 2004:
Met with Mr. Tetsuro Suzuki and Shigenori Kon. Mr. Suzuki confirmed that the JPT's contribution of \500,000 would be added to the MVS account in mid-February. JPT would be happy to assist the MVS Committee to let the members know exact material costs excluding tax and the material availability on the market; JPT would like to know whether the MVS Committee would contact JPT for checking availability of the materials or individual libraries would do instead.

Discussion with Mr. Sasakawa, Mr. Hayase, and Prof. Syun Tutiya, Dec. 6, 2004:
A suggestion that NCC establish a committee to manage the GIF project in North America was made; issues to be addressed include the need of a manual and workshops for ILL staffs, and the communication among ILL staffs between North America and Japan as well as with libraries from other regions. It might be possible to have a presentation on GIF activities at the NCC Open Meeting 2005.

AAS Annual Meeting in Chicago: April 1, 2005:

1)   Afternoon session, 1-4 p.m.:
A tentative program:

2)   Evening session, 7-9 p.m.:
Presentations will be made by Japanese publishers and vendors on their publications, online products, and services. The following expressed their interest to participate in the program: