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

 

University of Maryland
McKeldin Library Special Event Room
September 22-23, 2006

Copies of the Reports made at the September 2006 NCC Meeting can be found by clicking the relevant links.

Present: Officers and Executive Committee: Tokiko Bazzell, Chair-Elect, University of Hawaii; Victoria Bestor, Executive Director, NCC/ Harvard University; Toshie Marra, Chair, University of California, Los Angeles; Susan Matisoff, University of California, Berkeley; and Kenji Niki, University of Michigan; Council Members: Jan Bardsley, NEAC University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (substitute for Samuel Yamashita); Sharon Domier, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; Laura Hein, JF-AAC, Northwestern University; Hwa-Wei Lee, Library of Congress; Philip Meltzer, Library of Congress CEAL (substitute for Keiko Yokota-Carter),; Eiko Sakaguchi, University of Maryland; Miranda Scheur, University of Maryland (substitute for Michael Smitka); Tomoko Steen, Library of Congress; Syun Tutiya, Japan Liaison, Chiba University. Observers: Kia Cheleen, Japan Foundation; Osamu Inoue, Japan Association of National University Libraries/Global ILL Framework Coordinator, Tokyo Institute of Technology; Eiichi Ito, Library of Congress; Yuhei Kato, National Diet Library Washington DC Office; Margaret Mihori, Japan-US Friendship Commission; Akemi Noda, University of Maryland; Kenichiro Shimada, University of Maryland; Keiji Shono, Japan Foundation; Kenneth Tanaka, University of Maryland; Desider Vikor, University of Maryland; Reiko Yoshimura, Japan Art Catalog Project Asian Collection Curator, Library of the Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Welcoming Remarks

Meeting host Eiko Sakaguchi, introduced colleague Desider Vikor, Director, Collection Management & Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries, who welcomed NCC on behalf of the University of Maryland. NCC Chair Toshie Marra then opened the meeting and welcomed guests, Jan Bardsley, substituting for Samuel Yamashita, Philip Meltzer, substituting for Keiko Yokota-Carter, Miranda Scheur, substituting for Michael Smitka as social science faculty representative, and Osamu Inoue representing the Japan Association of National University Libraries.

Toshie notified the Council of the letter received from Duane Webster, ARL Executive Director confirming ARL's decision to no longer be represented on the NCC Council. She also noted that Mary Jackson, the former ARL representative to the NCC has recently left ARL. She reported that the Executive Committee recommended that the NCC observe the situation for the time being without attempting to find an organization replacing ARL in the Council membership. In the future the NCC plans to invite librarians from host institutions and other leaders in the field to address the NCC to keep it informed of new developments in the field. Also Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian of Congress has offered to be an informal advisor to the NCC. The NCC will continue to keep ARL informed of its activities and welcomes future opportunities to work with ARL and its staff.

Eiko Sakaguchi concluded the welcoming remarks with a brief report on the Prange Symposium held September 21, 2006.

Reports from Funding Agencies:

Margaret Mihori spoke on behalf of the Japan-US Friendship Commission. She noted that within the JUSFC's priorities the needs of libraries are an important part of the funding to the field of Japanese studies and has been since the early 1990s, especially of note is their long support of the Multi-Volume Sets Project. The Commission had just had their fall meeting and Margaret noted that while no NCC requests were before the Commission at the most recent meeting they had funded a project from the American Association of Archivists (see JUSFC website for further details). Margaret also discussed the current redesign of the JUSFC web site being undertaken by the NCC's webmaster, Brigid Laffey.

Margaret also noted that CULCON XXII took place in July 2006 in Big Sky, Montana. She circulated the CULCON XXII Joint Communiqué. She provided a review of how the organization has worked towards establishing resources and providing support to build strong ties between the US and Japan. In addition, she discussed the ongoing development and issues facing the organization's Cross Currents website.

CULCON's Global Leaders Working Group provided a series of recommendations including to establish best practices for exchange programs and international activities with the goal of developing a global perspective, to establish a study which will track the impact of exchange programs, to examine US and Japan leaders to identify key elements of training which have helped them to be successful, and to enable exchange programs to gain a broad perspective and establish economies of scale through collaboration and cooperation.

A frank discussion regarding CULCON's future was also held at the conference. It was agreed that the organization should work to evaluate past achievements, review its membership to ensure all members were committed to working together to increase CULCON's visibility and to provide the activities necessary to sustain itself and its funding. Margaret noted that CULCON is currently looking for new projects that will reinvigorate its missions and is seeking suggestions from the field. Anyone with suggestions should contact Pamela Field the CULCON liaison officer.

Keiji Shono reported on behalf of the Japan Foundation beginning by introducing the New York Office's new program associate Kia Cheleen who has recently returned from several years living in Japan.

Mr. Shono reported that the 2006 Japan Studies Information Specialist Training (JSIST) program will only admit trainees from Europe and Africa and will focus primarily on basic training for librarians from developing countries. In the coming years there will again be a JSIST program that admits trainees from the US, Canada and other developed countries.

He also reviewed the revised guidelines for Japan Foundation Library Support grants which were announced to the field in an email from NY Director General on August 23, 2006. Those in the B1 & B2 categories will be limited to ¥1,000,000 and there will be no monetary awards. He also noted that JF will cover the shipping of materials.

The Japan Foundation's new three-year funding cycle begins in April 2007 during which time he expects funding may continue to decrease, perhaps by as much as 20%. The Japan Foundation's Directory of Japanese Studies in the US will be published in November or December 2006 by the University of Hawaii Press.

Toshie Marra spoke briefly on her meeting in August at Japan Foundation in Tokyo with Jun'etsu Komatsu and Tadashi Ogawa the new Director of Japanese Studies and General Coordinator of the Americas Division. She understood from them that the US would be able to apply for JSIST in 2007. Mr. Shono said that he understood it to be every three years and would double check on whether or not 2007 would be the next opportunity. Once he has clarified that detail Toshie plans to notify Japanese studies librarians of JSIST program change on EASTLIB.

A question was raised about the need for an image bank with a variety of graphic data to be used for teaching Japanese cultures and suggested the need for a guide to such resources. LC's freely available images from the Print and Photography Division were mentioned. Miranda Scheur mentioned using the 1992 Pacific Century series and wishing it would be updated. Laura Hein mentioned Nagasaki University's Bakumatsu Photos with bilingual captions. The need for more translations of captions and instructions to the use of websites and databases was noted and suggested as a possible project for CULCON.

Susan Matisoff reminded Mr. Shono of the previous question about the Japanese Literature Database funded by the Japan Foundation. She asked if self-generated submissions will be accepted and will the database be updated. Mr. Shono reminded the Council that the Japanese Literature Database is a project of the Japan P.E.N. Club and he promised to check into these questions and to notify the appropriate lists.

Toshie Marra reminded Mr. Shono of the NCC's request to receive a copy of the review report of the last JSIST program. Mr. Shono promised to obtain the report and to send a copy to the NCC.

Reports from NCC Representatives from Collaborating Organizations and Constituencies:

Laura Hein gave the report for the Japan Foundation American Advisory Committee (JF-AAC) noting that because money for library grants have been cut the JF-AAC relies all the more on the NCC's guidance in recommending grants. She added that due to the Japan Foundation's severe budget situation it would be unlikely for a long-term project such as the NCC's current Japanese E-Resource Training Initiative to be funded in the future.

Library of Congress (LC) Hwa-Wei Lee, Chief of the Asian Division, provided the Council with an overview of some of the major changes and acquisitions taking place during the last six months. Among the most noteworthy, is the development of a new strategic plan to be implemented over a five-year period from 2008-2013. Under the leadership of Dr. Deanna Marcum, the Library of Congress will focus on 1) Collecting and preserving the record of America's creativity and the world's knowledge 2) Providing the most effective methods for connecting the Library of Congress user to the various collections 3) Deepening the general understanding of American cultural, intellectual and social life and of other peoples and nations; 4) Providing leadership for the library community and, 5) Managing for results.

The Asian Division, has extended its hours, increased outreach programs through the Asian Division Friends Society, and is now open 8:30 to 5:00 Monday through Saturday (except holidays). They have initiated a pilot program to see if a shelf-ready cataloging service being offered by a Japanese book vendor would be a viable timesaving opportunity in which to invest. In addition, the Asian Division has done considerable work toward digitization; the 60-volume Genji Monogatari including its six supplemental volumes and LC has fully digitized over 2,000 Japanese woodblock prints as well. Dr. Lee hopes to be able to hire one new Japan-specialist librarian next year.

He mentioned that Carolyn Brown is now heading the Kluge Center Fellowships program and the Asian Division's new boss is Jeremy Adamson. Dr. Lee also mentioned recent donations of Japanese maps to LC that are now available online. He also mentioned that Deanna Marcum gave a speech at NDL and the Council asked about getting copies.

The Council was also very appreciative of Dr. Lee's announcement that LC has purchased Tsurunoya Kobori Tomoto Bunko 弦迺舎小堀鞆音文庫 a set proposed to MVS in 2006 for which MVS did not have adequate funding to cover.

Northeast Asia Council (NEAC) Report: The Northeast Asia Council of the AAS was represented at the meeting by Jan Bardsley, who substituted for Samuel Yamashita. She gave a brief overview of the proposals that received NEAC funding in 2005-2006. NEAC supports three major areas of exchange: lectures by distinguished scholars and artists from Japan, Korea, and the US; summer seminars for specialized training; and workshops for Japanese and Korean language teachers. 2005-2006 awards for distinguished speakers went to SUNY-Buffalo and University of Rochester to invite E. Taylor Atkins (Blue Nippon); and Beloit College, Northern Illinois University, and Rockford College invited Susan Napier (Anime: From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle). NEAC supported the following summer workshops: "The University of Chicago Summer Workshop: Reading Kuzushiji" led by Susan Burns; "University of Southern California Kambun Workshop" led by Joan Piggott and Eiichi Ishigami of the University of the Tokyo Historiographical Institute); and "Stanford University Workshop on Japanese Paleography" led by Karen Wigen. Workshops for regional Japanese teacher associations in the Southeast (Georgia Institute of Technology) and the Midwest (Ohio State University) also received support. NEAC funded requests for instructional materials from high schools, universities and public libraries. Several grants were awarded to faculty and doctoral students for travel to collections within the US and for short-term research in Korea or Japan; topics represented a diverse range of interests including philosophy, Buddhist art, labor practices, geography, and many more. NEAC is making a special effort this year to publicize the many grant areas open for application.

It was suggested that NEAC grant application guidelines should be revised to clarify the eligibility of librarians and museum curators for NEAC grants. Jan agreed to discuss possible revisions with NEAC Chair Susan Burns and other members of NEAC.

Philip Melzer, President of Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL), attended as 's substitute and reported on behalf of CEAL. He began by reporting on CEAL IFLA Pre-Conference Scholarly Information on East Asian in the 21st Century, which included 23 papers plus a keynote and was attended by 100 individuals. The papers will be available on the CEAL Website.

A new CEAL Special Committee on CJK Capabilities in Local Systems is being headed by Martin Heijdra of Princeton University. He also was happy to report that LC's plan to offer internships in East Asian cataloging will begin shortly. The period of internships will range for 10-14 weeks and programs will be tailored to the needs of the interns. Grants of $500 will be given and the program will be evaluated in 2 years.

Philip Melzer added an update on the LC's pilot shelf-ready cataloging outsourcing project. It has been observed that in reality a substantial amount of staff time has been additionally spent for this project.

Syun Tutiya provided the Japan Liaison's Report. The process known as hojinka continues but its direction remains unpredictable with various plans and working groups all having certain roles or resources that impact university libraries, scholarly communication and computer networking, without enough guidance for individual libraries, in his impression.

In terms of staffing, the "localization policy" has begun to have a noticeable impact. The former "nationwide" system of human resources rotations controlled by Monbusho (MEXT) is no longer in effect. This change is particularly felt among senior staff who are now employed by the institution in which they were posted when the policy was implemented. In his opinion "It is obvious that this localization has stagnated the flow of librarians which was formerly feasible and successful." He further noted that it appears that the way senior managers are negotiating this new system is by arranging to return and end their careers at the institution in which they began. He also reminded the NCC that the population bulge will result in the retirement of a large cohort of senior managers in April 2007.

He also spoke briefly about new developments at the National Institute of Informatics, the National Diet Library, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. With regard to copyright issues he mentioned changing guidelines for photocopying which are still evolving and he concluded by saying that the Global ILL Framework is proceeding well and functioning on a regularized basis.

NCC Committee and Task Force Reports:

Tomoko Steen presented the Digital Resources Committee (DRC) report which focused on reviewing the DRC website improvements, outlining new tasks and roles members of the DRC will commit to work on over the next few months. The DRC website has just been updated and revised to reflect new activities.

Tomoko Steen and Syun Tutiya together provided an overview of the Ad Hoc Meeting on Japan-US Digital Resources or so-called September 1st meeting held at the University of Tokyo Library with three Japanese newspaper vendors, namely Yomiuri, Nikkei, and Asahi, where significant inroads were made to gain a mutual understanding of the types of information and service relationships that would be beneficial to both database providers and academic libraries in Japan and the United States. The meeting was sponsored by the Japan Association of National University Libraries, NCC, CEAL, and the Private and Public University Library Consortia (PULC) and was attended by 27 librarians and scholars including 11 from the US A full report on that meeting will be published shortly once fully reviewed by all participants.

Regarding the meeting Syun Tutiya commented on the different agendas held by Japanese and US libraries, i.e., while Japanese libraries, having the organized structure in place, were attempting to talk to the newspaper companies about potential big business, for US libraries the primary purpose of the meeting was vendor education. In spite of this difference, the libraries from both countries were able to identify several important issues of common interest to convey to the vendors, and the meeting was generally perceived by all participants to have been extremely successful.

Susan Matisoff provided an update on the Multi-Volume Sets (MVS) committee, reporting that 8 grants had been awarded to 6 institutions in 2006 totaling ¥9,555,250. Susan reported that the JUSFC had agreed that institutions could charge regular ILL fees for MVS-funded sets. In conclusion, Susan asked the Council to discuss the Committee's recommendation to set a policy of asking MVS committee members to refrain from applying for MVS funds during their terms on the committee. Vickey Bestor added that the Council had discussed the same issue several years before, and had decided not to adopt the policy out of the fear that such a policy might inhibit librarians from serving on the MVS Committee. The Council this time recommended the adoption of the Committee's recommendation, and accordingly the Executive Committee was directed to seek new candidates willing to follow that rule. If it is found to be problematic the Council may review this rule in the future.

Eiko Sakaguchi provided the first Librarian Professional Development Committee (LPDC) report. The Committee which was formed in March 2006 is charged with serving as a primary communication vehicle for professional development opportunities, screening applications for JSIST training, soliciting views on current professional development and training needs for librarians in the Japan and East Asian field and to serve as a clearinghouse for professional development in Japanese studies librarianship.

The LPDC has already conducted an online survey via Eastlib to establish a profile of training and professional development needs of Japanese studies librarians, and Eiko gave the Council a summary of the survey results. The Committee will further analyze the survey results also in light of results from the Japan Foundation survey of the field of Japanese studies to plan future training projects offered by or co-sponsored by the NCC. Eiko added that the Council should have a clear idea of the target librarian community for planning any training programs.

The ILL/DD Committee report was provided by co-chair Sharon Domier and highlighted the success the Committee has enjoyed this year in establishing a strong working relationship with the Japanese GIF team. A large part of this success is due to the new roles that have been established to handle the questions and administration on the North American side. Chiaki Sakai has been managing the NCC GIF Discussion Group through its Google Group and Yoko Okunishi has taken over the management of the registration process for members in North America. The Japan GIF team is now responsible only for maintaining the Japanese membership and for serving as the primary point of contact for questions relating to the OCLC-NII software interface. The North American side fields a large number of questions from ILL staffers who need help verifying holdings information because of the language barrier.

Currently there are 129 GIF project participants in Japan (69 of which are participants in the loan service) and 52 in North America (of which 27 are participants in the loan service). Sharon also reported that the ILL/DD Committee web page had been completed and the user guides for requesting materials have been uploaded and can be accessed from the NCC website.

Sharon Domier spoke briefly on behalf of the AskEASL Advisory Committee. Sharon noted that the project is once again in a slow phase and she questioned the need for the continuation of the project. She observes that researchers tend use more subject-focused listservs to ask their questions and often the kinds of questions AskEASL received were not what she had expected. A number of Council members expressed concern about Sharon's proposal to end AskEASL service. The Council recommended not to end the AskEASL project for the time being.

Toshie Marra, Tokiko Bazzell and Victoria Bestor all reported on different aspects of the E-Resources Training Initiative. On behalf of Dawn Lawson, Information Literacy Portal Task Force Coordinator, Tokiko reported that the Task Force had established a communication vehicle among the members and a discussion group for people interested in issues related to IL. The Task Force members are currently migrating the e-resource guides from AskEASL to the NCC IL Portal, expanding the portal site with more materials developed by librarians, and investigating online tutorials for the portal site. Vickey Bestor presented a report on year 2 and reported briefly on the 17 E-Resources regional workshops took place in 2006 all over the United States and one each in Canada and Japan. She also passed out a list of workshops and seminars planned during the third and final year of the project.

Tokiko Bazzell reported on her presentation in August at the Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance conference prior to the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) conference in Seoul, Korea where she spoke on the NCC's efforts in information literacy and provided a demo of the NCC's Information Literacy portal. Later in August Tokiko gave another presentation on the Information Literacy Portal site at Tohoku University as well.

Tokiko also reported on visits to several national institutions in South Korea and various programs relating to digitization. She found that both in Korea and China the national governments are very focused on promoting digital products and providing access to information pertaining to their cultural and intellectual heritage. She found that the governments heavily subsidize many of the digital projects and that the products are then offered to institutions at little or no cost. She also noted that many of the Chinese database providers are aggressively trying to market their products and to establish partnerships with vendors in the US. Tokiko also noted that the copyright restrictions that generally prevent much of the digitization in Japan from occurring are very loosely monitored and regulated in Korea, allowing virtually everything to be digitized.

Toshie brought up the request from Michiko Ito of Kansas University for NCC to consider hosting a workshop on JapanKnowledge and other Japanese databases during the next AAS annual meeting with target audience of "underserved" faculty members. Members pointed out that faculty have so many other obligations and agenda during the AAS meeting that it would not be a suitable venue for this purpose. Instead the Council recommended that Ms. Ito explore smaller scale hands-on training sessions which might be organized at major regional meetings such as the Mid-Western Council on Asian Studies.

Reiko Yoshimura provided the principal report on behalf of the Japan Art Catalog Project. She noted that the Freer received a donation of $25,000 from users of JAC to assist with speeding cataloging of the collection. The move of Western Catalogs to Columbia from Pittsburgh has been completed and Columbia has begun cataloging.

Toshie reported that NCC has received an inquiry on the status of JAC II from the new National Art Center, Tokyo which will open to public in January 2007. Vickey proposed that efforts be made to expand collaboration with the Japan Art History Forum to facilitate collection of US exhibition catalogs on Japanese art for the JAC II project, which Council approved. Concern was raised about the difficulty in getting US institutions to make donations of catalogs because of the high cost of publishing. Reiko Yoshimura noted that she now has to earmark a portion of her own budget to purchase Freer catalogs to maintain existing exchange relationships.

NCC Administrative Reports:

The administrative portion of the meeting (at the end of the day) began with an executive session for the election of new Council Members. The Report by the Executive Committee on the Nomination Process was followed by election of new members. The report noted that the NCC had very strong pools of candidates for all positions.

The following individuals were elected to NCC positions. Professor Robin Le Blanc of Washington & Lee University in Virginia was elected the NCC social sciences faculty representative to serve a term from January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2009. Three librarian members were elected with each being assigned a future committee responsibility. Chiaki Sakai, Japanese Studies Librarian at the University of Iowa, was elected to serve as the co-chair of the ILL/DD Committee and to succeed Sharon Domier in her term that ends on December 31, 2006. (Chiaki Sakai's term will run from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2009). Maureen Donovan, Japanese Studies Librarian at Ohio State University, was elected to a term running from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2010 and to serve as the co-chair of the NCC's Librarian Professional Development Committee (LPDC). Hitoshi Kamada, Japanese Studies Librarian at the University of Arizona, was elected to a term running from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2010 and he will serve as a member of the Japan Foundation Library Support Program Advisory Committee (his term on that committee will begin immediately and run for three JF grant years). They will succeed Eiko Sakaguchi and Kenji Niki, respectively.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Administrative reports continued with an update on NCC's publication and public information efforts, first highlighting the updates and redesigns to the NCC website. The use of more contrasting color for the navigation bar was suggested. With regard to the individuals email address information given on the website, it was suggested to use a different symbol for the place of @ in order to prevent from becoming easy target to receive spam mails. In addition, first edition copies of the NCC Council Handbook and a draft of NCC Staff Manual were circulated. Minor expansions of the NCC Council Handbook will be made before copies are printed and given to each council member. It was suggested that an electronic copy of the Handbook be given to substituting Council members prior to the meeting.

Vickey Bestor also presented brief financial updates on the previous fiscal year and the Japan Foundation Year 2 grant and answered questions from the Council.

The NCC's revised Mission Statement recently re-written by the Executive Committee was reviewed and unanimously adopted by the Council, with only a minor change of order. Vickey was asked to revise and circulate the Mission Statement among the Council members by email.

Tokiko Bazzell presented the proposal from the Shashi Interest Group for affiliation with the NCC. A question on the definition of "affiliation" was raised and it was recommended that clarification be made with the Group regarding their intention. After a brief discussion it was proposed that a Council decision on that affiliation be deferred until the Round Robin Discussion at the end of the meeting. It was also proposed that the Council Handbook include a section on how groups affiliate with the NCC.

JANUL's idea for a pilot project for sending discarded books from national university libraries to US institutions, known as the Re-Use Plan, was discussed. The roles to be taken by Kinokuniya were questioned and Toshie Marra was asked to reconfirm with Kinokuniya which may provide shipping and handling for materials. Further considerations of this project were passed to the Executive Committee and will be decided upon at a future NCC Meeting.

Suggestions made during the Round Robin Session included the following:

A special Round Robin session to discuss information needs in the field of Japanese studies was held to assist Tokiko Bazzell as new NCC Chair to plan new activities for the Council.

There is a need for a Guide to Permissions. Faculty are always interested in using illustrations in their teaching and publications and there needs to be a clear document on the process of getting permissions for use in various venues and formats. This is also an issue with translations and clearances for publication. There is a need for a set of form letters for permissions, also including permissions for electronic publications. There needs to be communications with major publishers to know what they require. Such a guide should be bilingual with templates in both languages.

The creation of tutorials geared toward 4th year Japanese language students was suggested.

Concerns were raised about email security and confidentiality with reference to OECD personnel data protection.

The creation of a list of reference specialists cross-referenced by specialty was suggested. It was mentioned that such a list bears a resemblance to the JUSFC's online list of specialists in the field who can be consulted by the media known as "On the Record".

Suggestions were made about strategies for inviting more faculty and students to attend NCC Meetings as observers. It was suggested that the NCC create some sort of "fellowships" for local faculty and students to attend their working meetings as observers (where they would learn a great deal).

Suggestions were made for additions to the NCC website and the IL Portal. Kenneth Tanaka and Akemi Noda have developed a guide to resources in Asian American Studies that they would like to link to the NCC site. The Council expressed enthusiasm and will refer this to the IL Portal Task Force.

It was noted that in many fields such as art history users are more reliant on English and it was suggested that there should be more basic translations on art historical resources. It was suggested that possibly a WIKI among art history scholars and buffs would be a useful resource an idea that should be discussed with the Japan Art History Forum.

There is need to organize more discussions with copyright holders. The Japanese library community has good communication with copyright holders and they meet 4-5 times a year in regular meetings between librarians and copyright holders. The question was raised as to how copyright holders can be involved in the discussions and how the point can be made that it is to their advantage to participate.

One member stated that user-service is the "real" and "only" job of librarians. In a digital world resource sharing only requires a server. At the end of the Round Robin discussion the Council re-emphasized the point that the NCC's primary goal must continue to be Helping Users.

Several issues were referred to the NCC Executive Committee for further discussion, decisions or recommendations back to the Council. The Council recommended that the Shashi Interest Group be asked to define further their affiliation and their role with the NCC and that the NCC Executive Committee should make a final decision on that affiliation.

The next NCC Council Meeting will be at the University of Washington in Seattle on January 12-13, 2007 hosted by Keiko Yokota-Carter. Robert Britt will offer a workshop on digital resources for Japanese legal studies on Thursday January 11th open to NCC members and users from the region. That workshop will be part of the NCC's Year 3 Japan Foundation Grant.

The NCC Open Meeting will be in the Tsai Auditorium of Harvard's Center for Government and International Studies on Friday March 23rd from 9 to noon. Following that will be a buffet lunch hosted by the Reischauer Institute offering tours of the new Fung Library where the Documentation Center on Contemporary Japan is housed as well as the collection of the John K. Fairbanks Center for Chinese Studies. Optional tours of Widener Library and/or campus walking tours will be available. From 2 pm the Harvard-Yenching Library will host tours of their collections followed by a reception.