Report of the Meeting of the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources

 

University of Michigan
Hatcher Graduate Library, Room 319
September 16-17, 2005

Copies of the Reports made at the September 2005 NCC Meeting can be found by clicking the relevant links.

Summary of the Event

Present: Officers: Chair Toshie Marra, UCLA; Executive Committee Members Kenji Niki, University of Michigan; and Michael Smitka, Washington and Lee University; Executive Director Victoria Bestor, NCC/ Harvard University; Council Members: Sharon Domier, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; Laura Hein, Northwestern University; Eiichi Ito, Library of Congress (substitute for Hwa-Wei Lee); Mary Jackson, Association of Research Libraries; Susan Matisoff, University of California Berkeley; Eiko Sakaguchi, University of Maryland; Tomoko Steen, Library of Congress; Syun Tutiya, Chiba University; Keiko Yokota-Carter, University of Washington. Observers: Kristopher Kersey, Japan Foundation New York; Bernard Reilly, Center for Research Libraries, Mari Suzuki, University of Michigan Absent: Samuel Yamashita, Pomona College.

Welcoming Remarks - Meeting host Kenji Niki introduced his colleague Brenda Johnson, Associate University Librarian for Public Services, who welcomed the NCC on behalf of the University of Michigan. NCC Chair Toshie Marra then opened the meeting and welcomed the new members: Laura Hein of Northwestern University, the new Japan Foundation-American Advisory Committee (JF-AAC) representative; Susan Matisoff of UC Berkeley, the new humanities faculty member; Tomoko Steen of the Library of Congress Science and Technology Division, a new librarian member and the new Chair of the Digital Resources Committee; and Keiko Yokota-Carter, the new CEAL representative and the Chair of CEAL's Committee on Japanese Materials. Toshie also welcomed Mr. Bernard Reilly from the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), a special guest, as the Global Resources Network will be transferred from the Association for Research Libraries to CRL by the end of this year.

Reports from Funding Agencies:

Japan Foundation

- Kristopher Kersey, Japan Foundation New York Office, spoke about recent developments at the Japan Foundation. The Foundation's New York Office has moved to the 17th floor in the same building where their office has been for the last several years. Mr. Shono was overseeing the move and was unable to attend the meeting.

Kris Kersey provided a report on the 2004 JF Library Support Program with comments added by JF-AAC Representative Laura Hein. He also announced that the Japanese Literature in Translation database has become available on the JF web site and noted that information about new translations is being solicited to update the database. Of particular interest to librarians are the future plans for the Japan Studies Information Specialists Training Program (JSIST Program). The original plan for the current round was to only include information specialists from outside the G-8 nations, however that decision has been revised and they now expect to include two to three librarians from those countries during the current three-year phase of the project.

The NCC asked the Japan Foundation provide an update on the status of the Japan Foundation's libraries at the next meeting.

Because the meeting of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) coincided with the NCC Meeting, no JUSFC representative was in attendance. Vickey Bestor reviewed the JUSFC reports which had been circulated to members. Vickey also mentioned that the Commission may consider accepting three-year applications from the NCC as of the next round in March 2006. Toshie added that this year's funding from JUSFC to NCC included an increase of $2,250 in the general budget but a reduction of ¥500,000 for the Multi-Volume Sets Project. Vickey reported that Margaret Mihori suggested that the reduction for MVS would most likely be a one time only occurrence.

Reports from NCC Representatives from Collaborating Organizations and Constituencies:

In Hwa-Wei Lee's absence, Eiichi Ito fielded questions about the Library of Congress (LC) report. That report focused on nine areas including: 1) Digital conservation of very rare Japanese illustrated Nara Ehon now available online; 2) LC collaboration with Nichibunken to digitize 2,331 Japanese prints, mainly Ukiyo-e prints from the Edo-period; 3) The recent cataloging of the series of manuscripts by Dr. Shiho Sakanishi who was the first Japanese specialist at the Library (1930-1942). This collection is a significant primary resource for study of the development of the Japanese collection at the Library and of Japanese studies in North America during that period; 4) The 207 sheets of large-scale Inoh maps now accessible online; 5) Increased usage of Japanese rare books in the LC collection; 6) The National Diet Librarian Takao Kurosawa's visit to LC; 7) LC's 2003 exhibition of Ukiyo-e now online; 8) Statistics of the Japanese collection; and 9) Important acquisitions.

Association of Research Libraries representative Mary Jackson and Center for Research Libraries (CRL) President Bernard Reilly together discussed the transfer of the AAU/ARL Global Resources Network (GRN) from ARL to CRL and Mary Jackson provided additional background on expectations for ARL's new Strategic Priorities. The transition of the GRN to CRL will take effect January 1, 2006. Mr. Reilly expressed his view that there is much natural synergy among the programs of the GRN and other GRN projects might learn a great deal if the Japan Project were to share the broader experience of NCC projects with them. Future plans for the GRN and the role of the Japan Project within it were discussed by the Council quite extensively. The membership requirement to play a part in the GRN would be one of the major concerns for NCC as no NCC projects so far required any membership charges from participating institutions. Discussions concluded with an agreement that future review would take place at later NCC meetings as the transition is effected over the next year.

Mr. Reilly also spoke about the need for creating guidelines for the cooperative digitization of new content. He will send links to new plans as they are being developed for circulation to the NCC. Further discussion was also had with regard to the differing missions of ARL and CRL. On behalf of his Japanese colleagues, Syun Tutiya encouraged the NCC to continue to examine the question of future involvement with the GRN under CRL.

Committee on Japanese Materials (CJM) Chair Keiko Yokota-Carter presented the CJM report and discussed other issues related to the Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL). She reported that the new members of CJM are (in addition to herself): Tokiko Y. Bazzell, University of Hawaii; Antony Boussemart, Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient (France); Eiichi, Ito, Library of Congress; Tomoko Goto, University of British Columbia (Canada); Haruko Nakamura, Yale University; Ikuo Sasakawa, University of Tokyo (Japan); and Kenneth Kazuo Tanaka, University of Maryland, College Park. The members of the Subcommittee on Japanese Rare books are Toshie Marra, University of California, Los Angeles; Hideyuki Morimoto, Columbia University; and Tomoko Goto, University of British Columbia. The new CEAL homepage is at: http://wason.library.cornell.edu/CEAL/. She also mentioned plans for sessions at IFLA in Seoul in August 2006.

The NCC's new Japan Foundation AAC representative Laura Hein spoke about the January meeting of the AAC with comments from Kristopher Kersey of JFNY. She noted that the overriding issue is that there is less money available for funding. Library support will continue and conferences are very important. She expressed the AAC's enthusiasm for projects like the NCC's E-Resources initiatives and LC's Takemitsu project.

As the Japan Foundation anticipates continued tight budgets they are thinking that less of their money should be spent on maintenance costs for organizations. However she emphasized the value of comments given by the Japan Foundation Library Support Program Advisory Committee which the NCC coordinates.

She also talked about the changing role of the Japan Foundation in the post Hojinka era. She said that there has been some decline in the Foundation's clout because of reduced funding but simultaneously very strong pressure from the Japanese government for the JF to perform more public relations functions. She noted that there is the expectation that more programs will move away from the G-8 nations. The US-based programs that help spread knowledge about Japan elsewhere, such as the NCC, are the most likely to attract continued support.

The Council discussed ways to document the impact of programs in the US more broadly and suggested that ways be explored to pull more data from the Japan Foundation survey currently being conducted by Pat Steinhoff.

No report was available from the Northeast Asia Council of the AAS. Representative Samuel Yamashita was unable to attend and NEAC Chair Sally Hastings had hoped to send a substitute but in the end no other member was able to attend.

Japan Liaison Syun Tutiya then discussed his report. First he provided further follow-up on changes on library activities resulting from the incorporation of national universities. His report detailed changes in personnel administration that will impact both initial employment and promotion policies among librarians. At the senior level in university libraries he noted that almost half of directors/associate librarians in major universities have been replaced. Among them is the Director of the Contents Division, which is in charge of NACSIS-CAT/ILL and other library cooperation efforts. He also provided an update on the three MEXT working groups on computer networks, university libraries, and scholarly communication. Their work will continue through this fiscal year and final reports from the working groups are expected in March 2006.

The Director General of the National Institute of Informatics (NII), changed from Dr. Suematsu to Dr. Sakauchi, and the Director for library cooperation and computer networks also changed from

Professor Tokura to Professor Adachi, who has been at NII from the start of the institution and has contributed to almost all NACSIS/NII projects (with the exception of CAT which is Professor Miyazawa's specific project). It is hoped that NII will play a key role in the coordination of library activities in the new era as well as maintaining NACSIS-CAT/ILL and other activities to support libraries and librarians.

News from National Diet Library (NDL) includes plans to implement the systems and operations for legal deposit of networked resources, which has encountered difficulties related to author's rights over the reproduction of materials by libraries.

On broader copyright issues, the major point discussed in the regular meeting with libraries and copyright holders focused on permission for borrowing libraries to make reproductions of borrowed materials/books and the removal of the practice of masking the rest of the copyrighted material beyond the part permitted for reproduction.

Toshie added that back in April, Prof. Tutiya asked NCC to write a memo to describe the current Japanese information needs of overseas researchers, and she, in consultation with several Council and committee members, prepared a four-page document discussing such areas as commercial electronic resources, ILL/DD, preservation and digitization of rare and fragile materials, statistical data sets, and free internet resources. Prof. Tutiya will provide an update on the memo at a later NCC meeting.

NCC Committee and Task Force Reports:

A range of reports and updates were given on the E-Resources Training Initiatives by Victoria Bestor and Toshie Marra. Vickey provided a summary of the final report on the first year (T-3) and passed out a schedule on the plans for E-Resources Workshops during FY 2005-06. Toshie and Vickey discussed plans for development of the E-Resources Website being coordinated by Tokiko Bazzell. And together they reported on discussions to date on plans for Year 3 of the E-Resources Training Initiative for application to the Japan Foundation. The Council discussed possible components for the Year 3 project, including electronic resource workshops for specialized subjects and the creation of online tutorials.

New Council Member and Chair of the Digital Resources Committee, Tomoko Steen, gave her report on the activities of the committee during the last 6 months beginning with the first meeting of the committee prior to the NCC's Open Meeting and their presentation at that meeting. She also outlined committee goals which complement and inter-relate with other NCC efforts: educating Japanese studies librarians about contracting/licensing issues; working with librarians and library organizations in Japan to effect change; and approaching vendors as necessary to effect changes desired by our community.

The DRC has prepared a set of "Basic Guidelines and Requirements for Vendors of Japanese Digital Resources In the North American Library and the Scholarly Community." Kuniko Yamada McVey of Harvard took this memo to the Asahi headquarters in June. She served as DRC's point person with Asahi. The memo was also used by librarians at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Washington and UCLA, when the Asahi representatives visited their institutions. The memo has proved to be very useful thus far and our Japanese colleagues are also very interested in it. A Japanese version is now being translated and is expected to become a model for other Japanese vendors.

Committee co-chair Robert Britt has been updating the DRC website with the help of Brigid Laffey, the NCC's webmaster. Currently the page includes a new DRC Committee member list with contact information, committee goals, committee history, and recent activities. Tomoko Goto has been very helpful suggesting items for a "List of Incompatibilities in Japanese Database Contracts" or "Possible Improvements in Japanese Database Contracts to Apply to North American Institutions" that DRC is preparing. The DRC will study a sample contract prepared by Yale and the site currently has a link to Yale's Liblicense site.

The need to create a small discussion group led by DRC was raised. Vickey explained the difficulty she encountered in trying to set up a list for this purpose with Harvard's Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. NCC Webmaster Brigid Laffey has been investigating an alternative plan. Sharon Domier added that the ILL/DD Committee has begun using a Google Group for their needs to communicate among librarians from participating Institutions in the Global ILL Framework (GIF).

New Multi Volume Sets (MVS) Co-Chair Susan Matisoff reported on the MVS Committee meeting in February and on 2006 MVS grants based on reports provided by outgoing MVS Co-Chair Reiko Yoshimura. Several issues had been referred to the Council for discussion; principal among these was the question of the eligibility of second-hand publications for possible MVS funding. The committee expressed no intellectual objections to the policy, however it saw a number of possible obstacles (the need for vendors to hold books for a long time without guarantee of funding and the need to assure that materials are in a condition to circulate through ILL). The Council felt that second-hand titles should be considered only if there is a firm guarantee that vendors will hold them pending the MVS decision and that their quality warranted inclusion in the MVS collection. However, since the ad is already in the works for the AAS Newsletter, any chance to notify the field of the change must wait until the next grant year, 2006-07.

The committee also suggested that institutions applying for print-on-demand sets need to provide special justification for those requests as they must for recently published materials. Problems encountered by Duke University with a print-on-demand set were discussed and the Council emphasized that all extra expenses other than the materials associated with MVS grants must be borne by the institution receiving the grant even if unexpected expenses occur.

For the first time the question has been raised with regard to the ongoing requirement that all MVS titles must be lent free of charge through ILL. The MVS Committee suggested that further data is needed to determine whether or not free ILL has become a major factor inhibiting MVS applications. Mary Jackson pointed out that when MVS was set up in 1992 charging for ILL was the exception, now free ILL is quite exceptional among research libraries. Mary encouraged the ILL/DD Committee chair to undertake research on current practices for ILL charges. Subsequent discussion and possible decision will take place at the January 2006 meeting when representatives from the Japan US Friendship Commission, the funders of MVS, will be present.

Regarding the suggestion in the previous Council meeting to inform LC of the titles not funded by the MVS Project for their consideration to acquire, Eiichi Ito who is now serving on the MVS Committee mentioned that he would be happy to receive the list of titles but it would be difficult for LC to purchase materials that were published over five years ago.

Japan Project Advisory Committee (JPAC) Co-Chair Eiko Sakaguchi reported that there were no new developments in the JPAC except that some members of the Committee, namely Tokiko Bazzell and Eiko Sakaguchi, and Toshie Marra had an informal meeting during the AAS meeting with Professor Jun Aiba of Nichibunken and Mr. Yuki Ishimatsu of UC Berkeley to discuss digital projects in the US and Japan. Professor Aiba particularly expressed his interest in learning what digital materials US scholars need for their research in Japanese studies.

The committee will closely watch the transition of the AAU/ARL Global Resources Network from ARL to CRL.

Sharon Domier gave the AskEASL Advisory Committee report. The committee consists of herself and Setsuko Noguchi as coordinators, Sally Hastings and Rob Britt.

AskEASL was down for much of the summer, because a computer hacker penetrated the host computers and caused a lot of damage. Fortunately, AskEASL was spared any damage, other than lack of access. The Virtual Reference Desk computer support people brought AskEASL back up at the end of August. They have also scheduled AskEASL for a free upgrade to the newest version of the incubator software this fall.

While the committee members have debated how much time and energy to put into AskEASL, it was reassuring to know that a number of people continue to count on the service because it received a number of email inquiries from registered users when they were unable to access the site.

Now that the site is back up and functioning, the committee will begin to post Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). FAQs allow the committee to model questions and answer sets by taking real questions from people, removing any personal information, and then creating a polished answer. They can also use them to create question/answer pairs for questions that users should be asking. Sharon also noted that the former T-3 Trainees have been especially helpful in volunteering for AskEASL.

As co-chair of the NCC's ILL/DD Committee, Sharon Domier gave the first report for that committee. Members of the NCC's ILL/DD Committee include: Carol Jones, Head, Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery, Yale University; Lynne Kutsukake, Japanese Studies Librarian, University of Toronto; Perrin Joel Lumbert, Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Bates College; Kathryn Ridenour (co-chair), Head, Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Chiaki Sakai, Japanese Studies Librarian, University of Iowa; and Osamu Inoue (Japan ILL/DD Liaison), Head of Public Services, Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Committee members were selected to represent institutions large and small, and include both Japanese studies specialists and interlibrary loan managers. The main charge to the committee is to facilitate use of GIF by creating user guides, doing promotion, and solving problems.

The committee has not had an opportunity to meet in person and the question was raised as to whether a meeting of the committee might be planned to take place in the Boston area. Sharon expressed the view that ideally the committee should meet once a year. The issue of communication is particularly important, because using GIF has been impossible for the entire summer since OCLC changed it software platform. NII continues to monitor the problem and to report on progress through its listserv.

Once the problems encountered with the conversion of the OCLC platform have been solved, the major goal of the committee is to improve service on both sides. Training and user-support are major strategies that will be employed. Lynne Kutsukake has drafted a guide for faculty and students at her campus on how to use GIF successfully. This will serve as a template for other libraries to enable them to provide similarly localized information. In the coming year this guide will be posted on the NCC website. Another initiative comes from Hitoshi Kamada at the University of Arizona. He and his programmers have come up with a small program that will take the long list of holding libraries from a NACSIS Webcat record and match it against the list of GIF participants to speed up the selection process. This program has great potential to eliminate some of the mistakes and speed up the process of verifying holdings. The committee also needs to draft a short and clear document on how to read holdings statements to post that on the NCC website as well.

The following action items are planned by the ILL/DD Committee before the next NCC Meeting: Get a listserv up and running to keep North American GIF members updated on OCLC/NII interchange status (are GIF requests being sent/received); post the template guide for local use aimed at faculty and students; post public relations/advertising document that librarians can use to introduce GIF to their institutions; and post the University of Arizona software that simplifies holdings information verification. Vickey also suggested that it would be good to develop a simple GIF brochure before the next AAS Meetings in April 2006.

A report on the Japan Art Catalog (JAC) Project was given jointly by Toshie Marra and Victoria Bestor. They reported on administrative changes in Japan, on activities at the JAC Asian Collection at the Freer Gallery of Art, and provided an update on the University of Pittsburgh's decision to give up the Western Art Depository, which must now find a new home. Columbia University's Avery Art Library may take the collection with assistance in cataloging given by the C.V. Starr East Asian Library. Sharon Domier also expressed the possible interest of Amherst College in taking the collection if Columbia does not.

With the plan for the JAC Project collection in Tokyo to be included in the new National Art Center being built in Roppongi, the Council discussed the resumption of the JAC II project which has been inactive since 1997. With the new facilities there will now be space for US catalogs and staff to provide cataloging and reference services with extended hours for users. Having heard of the Japan side's interest in resuming JAC II, Vickey has found a graduate student in museum studies who can work on rebuilding the contact lists at the US institutions that hold exhibitions of Japanese art. She estimated that the annual shipping costs for JAC II books (one shipment per year, sent sea mail) would likely be in the range of $200 which can be covered by NCC funds. With the Council's encouragement she will have the graduate student begin contacting museums with the goal of having the first resumed JAC II shipment to Japan in time for the opening of the National Art Center in 2007.

The report from the NCC Executive Committee (EC) was given by Michael Smitka who noted that the major activities of the new committee have been coordinating the search for appropriate candidates for NCC Chair-elect and proposing revisions to the NCC By-Laws.

For the nomination of the chair-elect the Executive Committee chose to set up a special committee because Chair Toshie Marra preferred not to serve as chair and rather asked to be an observer to the process. She suggested past Chair, Sachie Noguchi, in her stead and the EC unanimously agreed to that suggestion. Sachie proposed that in addition her predecessor as Chair, Kristina Troost be asked to join the committee. Together they worked over the summer to post notices and seek suggestions from throughout the field.

A question raised at the EC was whether or not institutional overlap should be permissible in the case of the chair-elect when other elected Council members serve from the same institution. The Council agreed to approve such overlap considering the limited pool of candidates for chair-elect.

A nomination of a highly qualified candidate from Japan had been made and the Council discussed whether or not it is essential that the NCC's chair be from the US. The Council agreed that given the need for the chair to be completely current on the US Japanese studies scene and to relate with US based funders, the NCC chair should be from an institution in the US.

An extensive discussion followed on the key qualities needed in a new chair. The relative strengths of candidates were discussed, giving Council members time to reflect on the qualifications of the candidates before the final vote, which took place later.

It was also announced that the EC had recommended Eiichi Ito of the Library of Congress as the new librarian member of MVS. Since Eiichi was present, serving as a substitute for LC representative Hwa-Wei Lee, he was formally thanked by the Council for accepting the assignment.

NCC Administrative Reports:

Executive Director Victoria Bestor presented a number of reports including a review of activities during the previous fiscal year, a summary of FY 2004-05 project expenses, and a report on the NCC-related visits she made during her three-week trip to Japan during July 2005. She reported on her extensive discussions with people at the Japan Foundation and elsewhere about the future of the Japan Studies Information Specialist Training Program. Chair Toshie Marra reported on the completion of the JSIST Program and discussed future librarian training needs. She also expressed thanks to the Japan Foundation which has just announced that they have reversed their original plan to limit participation to librarians from outside G-8 nations and now two to three candidates will be admitted from G-8 countries. The NCC will again coordinate the application process for US candidates.

Vickey also mentioned the Japan Foundation's interest in the NCC trying to mentor librarian groups in other countries to create NCC-like organizations. JF specifically mentioned Korea and also possibly Latin American countries as places that would benefit from having NCC-like organizations.

Vickey also provided an update on NCC publications and public information efforts, including a review of new components of the NCC website, a proposal for changes to the NCC Newsletter, and a discussion of the first full draft of the NCC Council Handbook. Because the NCC website is now its major public information vehicle, augmented by the growing range of brochures, the Council agreed that the newsletter should be converted to an annual publication largely distributed electronically, with a limited number of copies produced in print format. It was also suggested that briefer summaries of meeting reports should more regularly be published in the AAS Newsletter along with JEAL where they regularly are published.

The reports of the NCC's 2005 Open Meeting and the Publishers and Vendors Roundtable were discussed and the timing and venue for the 2006 meeting was debated. It was agreed that the 2006 NCC Open Meeting should take place on Friday evening April 7th from 7 pm in the AAS Conference hotel. The Council also discussed whether or not NCC would like to have a booth at the Exhibition during the next AAS with sponsorship from Japanese publishers and vendors to offer a training opportunity for Japanese electronic resources. It was agreed that NCC would not accept the offer to join with publishers in a booth at least for the 2006 AAS Meetings.

New Business:

The Council completed their discussion of nominations and elected Tokiko Yamamoto Bazzell, University of Hawaii, as NCC Chair-Elect. Her term as Chair-Elect is calendar year 2006 followed by three calendar years as NCC Chair. The Council formally thanked the Executive Committee for their role as nominators and especially thanked Sachie Noguchi who served as Chair and Kristina Troost who served as the other outside member.

On behalf of colleagues in Japan Syun Tutiya again raised their concerns about the problems encountered by the Global ILL Framework during the summer after OCLC's platform change disrupted the flow of requests among GIF members. He also noted that Japanese colleagues at NII had been extremely proactive in devising solutions to the problems but that OCLC had been very slow to respond in any way. He noted that it was in early July that OCLC informed NII that service would be temporarily interrupted for maintenance. On August 2nd they announced that the system was reopening, but the new format did not work for GIF participants and other international projects as well. NII immediately began working on solutions to the problem and offered to assist OCLC, which continued to be un-responsive. Finally on September 16th, after weeks of frustration, a letter was sent from NII to OCLC via Mr. Kino asking for details on how and when the system would be resumed and asking OCLC for an apology for the delay and for their lack of response to NII's offers of assistance.

Following an extensive discussion of these problems, the Council also noted the connection between GIF and the Japan Project of the AAU/ARL Global Resources Network. As was noted earlier, the Council and especially the Japan Project Advisory Committee will monitor the transfer of GRN from ARL to CRL over the next year and make a recommendation about the future need for the Japan Project in its current configuration.

Planning for the January 2006 Meeting at Library of Congress (January 13th and 14th, 2006) was discussed and it was agreed that the subsequent meeting, in September 2006 will be held at the University of Maryland. Susan Matisoff also expressed the desire to hold the January 2008 meeting at Berkeley to coincide with the opening of Berkeley's new East Asian Library.