An Update on the Training the Trainers (T-3) Workshops Project
North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources
January 7, 2005
The Training the Trainers (T-3) Committee: Sharon H. Domier (East Asian Studies Librarian, University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Ellen H. Hammond (Curator, East Asia Library, Yale University), Toshie Marra (Co-chair; Japanese Studies Librarian, Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library, UCLA), Sachie Noguchi (Co-chair; Japanese Studies Librarian, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University), Kristina Kade Troost (Co-chair; Head, International and Area Studies/Librarian for Japan and Korea, Duke University), Emily Werrell (Coordinator, Library Instruction & Outreach, William R. Perkins Library, Duke University) and NCC Executive Director Victoria Bestor, ex-officio.
Charges to the T-3 Committee are:
- To promote greater information literacy among faculty and students in electronic resources in Japanese studies, to plan and organize training sessions for librarian-instructors in the best practices for offering instruction to faculty and student users of electronic materials for teaching and research in Japanese studies;
- To prepare curriculum and training materials for the above described training-the-trainers sessions;
- To evaluate individual training-the-trainers sessions, the T-3 program itself, and to provide the NCC with recommendations regarding future e-resource training efforts.
Since receipt of the grant from the Japan Foundation on April 1, 2004, the committee has been assisting the NCC in planning the two T-3 Workshops. Shortly after the grant was received notices were posted on Eastlib, on the NCC's web site, and on other electronic lists in the field announcing receipt of the grant for the forthcoming T-3 workshops to be held at UCLA in Aug. 2004 and Duke University in January 2005.
On May 15-16, 2004 the T-3 Planning Conference was held at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University. In addition to T-3 Committee members participants included Tokiko Y. Bazzell (2003 Japanese Studies Information Specialist Training Program participant; Japan Specialist Librarian, University of Hawaii at Manoa), Kuniko Yamada McVey (Librarian for Japanese Collection, Harvard-Yenching Library), and Kazuko Sakaguchi (Director, Documentation Center on Contemporary Japan, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies). The conference decided upon the goals, agenda and format for the T-3 Workshops, drafted the workshop application announcement, and divided responsibilities for future work related to the T-3 Workshops among members of the committee.
The official call for applications for the T-3 Workshops was posted on Eastlib, H-Japan, and on the NCC web site on May 17, and by June 7 we received applications from 37 individuals including with one person requesting participation as an observer. The application screening subcommittee comprised of the three committee co-chairs and the executive director reviewed applications and decided to accept 35 individuals including one observer (16 trainees and one observer participating in the UCLA workshop, and 18 trainees reserved for the Duke workshop), keeping 2 individuals on a waiting list. A notice of acceptance was sent electronically to each participant. Ultimately one individual withdraw her application resulting in the UCLA workshop having 15 trainees and one observer
Following the planning conference, lead instructors Sharon Domier and Emily Werrell finalized the workshop program, prepared training materials, and made pre-workshop assignments for all trainees. Together they will serve as lead instructors for both T-3 Workshops and will continue to be involved in future e-resource training efforts as advisors.
The first T-3 Workshop was held at UCLA August 7-10, 2004 and was ably coordinated by NCC Chair Toshie Marra. In addition to the principal funding received from the Japan Foundation additional funding was received from the UCLA East Asian Library and the Center for Japanese Studies.
As noted earlier, Emily Werrell, Coordinator of Instruction and Outreach at Duke University's Perkins Library and Sharon Domier East Asian Studies Librarian at U-Mass Amherst were the instructors for the workshops. The T-3 Workshop itself was held in the East and West Electronic Classrooms of UCLA's Young Research Library. The program began with a workshop orientation and the roundtable session on the evening of August 7th and sessions ran the full day on both August 8th and 9th.
With cooperation of Ms. Ayuko Yokota of Nikkei America, Inc. and Mr. Daikichi Mitake of the Kinokuniya Bookstores, San Francisco, free trial access was negotiated for trainee-use to the following Japanese databases: Nikkei Telecom21, JapanKnowledge, MagazinePlus, BookPlus, 作家・執筆者人物ファイル,ネットで百科,, Web Oya-bunko, and WHO.
The intensive workshop included lectures, demonstrations, hands-on instruction, and presentations made by workshop trainees. Individual consultations with instructors were available by appointment prior to presentations and each trainee received a personal critique of their presentation by workshop instructors.
The second T-3 Workshop at Duke University will take place January 8-10, 2005. Kristina Troost, former NCC Chair and head of the international and area studies collections at Duke will be the site coordinator for the Duke workshop. Additional funding for T-3 at Duke will be provided by the Perkins Library System and the Asian Pacific Studies Institute of Duke University. The second T-3 Workshop will include 18 trainees.
Lead instructor's Sharon Domier and Emily Werrell have reviewed the comments from the T-3 UCLA trainees and based on those evaluations made minor adjustments to the format and schedule of the coming workshop at Duke. However the program at UCLA proved so successfully that few modifications were needed and the workshop at Duke will follow the same basic format.
Members of the T-3 Committee also assisted the NCC executive director in writing the grant proposal to the Japan Foundation for the second year of this project, the e-Resources Training Workshops which will employ some of the 33 librarian-instructors trained at T-3. In addition they will remain involved to advise the project as it continues into the coming year. A copy of the project statement for that grant has been circulated to all Council Members.
In addition to assist with the coordination of e-Resource Training Workshops in various regions of the country a new Regional Training Network Steering Committee was formed, co-chaired by Michael Smitka and Frank Chance (a separate report from that committee will be presented to the Council).
Submitted By Kristina K. Troost
