Report on the Working Meeting of The North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources
August 31 and September 1, 2007

 

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Agenda

Copies of the Reports made at the August 31 and September 1, 2007 can be found by clicking the relevant links.

Present:

Tokiko Yamamoto Bazzell, Chair, Victoria Bestor, Executive Director; members: Martin Collcutt, Maureen Donovan, Laura Hein, Hitoshi Kamada, Hwa-Wei Lee, Susan Matisoff, Chiaki Sakai, Tomoko Steen, Akio Yasue, Keiko Yokota-Carter; absent: Robin Le Blanc. Guests and observers: Theodore Bestor, Professor and Chair of Anthropology, Harvard University; Ellen Hammond, Curator of the East Asian Collections, Yale University; Mariko Honshuku, Japanese Reference Specialist, Harvard Law School Library; Michiko Katsumi, Japanese Cataloger, Harvard-Yenching Library; Izumi Koide, Director, Research Center on Entrepreneurship, Shibusawa Ei'ichi Memorial Foundation; Margaret Mihori represented the Japan-United States Friendship Commission; Susan Pharr, Professor of Government and Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University; Kazuko Sakaguchi, Librarian of the Documentation Center on Contemporary Japan, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Social Sciences Program, Harvard College Library; and Masako Yamamoto represented the Japan Foundation, Tokyo office. NCC Staff: Brigid Laffey, NCC Webmaster and Sharon Yamamoto, NCC Staff Associate also attended.

NCC Chair Tokiko Bazzell brought the meeting to order and asked for reports from the funding organizations.

Report from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission:

Margaret Mihori providing a brief outline of new items from the Commission since its last report was presented at NCC's January 12, 2007 meeting.

A year ago, the Commission anticipated that interest rates would rise in FY 2008, but rates have remained low. This means income from the Commission's reinvestments has not grown, and a weaker dollar has further eroded the Commission's spending power. As a result it will be difficult to fund any new initiatives, and on-going projects will receive greater scrutiny as competition increases for scarce resources. Full funding priorities can be found on the JUSFC website at: www.jusfc.gov.

Earlier this year the Commission filled four vacancies: Ms. Ellen H. Hammond; Ms. Velina Hasu Houston; Dr. Susan J. Pharr; Ms. Amelia Porges joined the Commission. There are currently three vacancies on the Commission's board, including the Chairman. The Commission anticipates filling these vacancies in the near future. A general announcement will be made when this occurs. Project funded for the entirety of FY 2007 can be found at: http://www.jusfc.gov/grants2007.asp.

Report from the Japan Foundation:

Masako Yamamoto from the Tokyo office of the Japan Foundation discussed three issues: 1) the new grant priorities recently initiated by the foundation, 2) the Tenri Workshop, and 3) Japanese Studies Information Specialists Training Program. The impetus for the new grant program priorities was a budget decrease of 5% for each program, in the presence of an increasing need to support new applicants while also supporting organizations that have been funded in the past. Under the new grant program, individual projects are organized under one category and institutional support is packaged together. Additionally, consortium programs, which used to be funded in a separate application process, now fit into the institutional category and are screened by committee. Programs that were not previously screened, such as the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (IUC) and the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS), will now be screened. This new application process gives the Japan Foundation a better overall view of the programs in the field. Initial screening of grant proposals will take place in September and successful proposals will then be invited to submit applications (due December 14th). All applicants are challenged to offer matching funds on a one-to-one basis (or higher). Organizations that pass the initial screening will receive guidance from the Japan Foundation on the final application.

Under the new structure, dedicated library support has been discontinued. All library support must be included in the institutional applications.

The second issue she discussed was the Tenri Workshop held in June 2007. She was encouraged to see that an international group could cooperate and successfully carry out a project without organizational help from the Japan Foundation, especially since it took two to three years to plan. She was also impressed with the contribution made by Tenri University in providing on-site logistics and facilities. She felt it was a good model for Japanese specialist training in the future.

She then announced that Japan Foundation expects to select all four of the US candidates ranked by the NCC for the 2007 Japanese Studies Information Specialist Training Program (JSIST) organized by the Japan Foundation and the National Diet Library to date. 2007 will be the last year of organizational support for JSIST and she is unsure what the NDL plans to do in the future. Tokiko Bazzell mentioned that she has already met with the NDL Deputy Director and she, Vickey, and Ikuhara-san will meet at the October 2007 Berkeley conference to further discuss this matter. The Japan Foundation will add its voice in pressuring NDL to continue training support working with the NCC and other organizations.

Greetings from Meeting Host:

Tokiko thanked the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RIJS) for its support of the Image Use Protocol (IUP) Task Force meeting held on August 29 at William James Hall, for their supplementary support of the E-Resources Workshop at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on August 30, and for the NCC working meeting currently being held. Professor Susan Pharr Director of the Reischauer Institute replied that RIJS was happy to support such an important group. She also noted the past collaborations between RIJS and the NCC including the workshops in November 2006 on Japanese Science Technology and Medicine, and Japanese Social Sciences Data, respectively and also the 2002 NCC Junior Japanese Studies Librarians Professional Training Seminar (JLTS).

Report on Image Use Protocol Task Force: Theodore Bestor, task force co-chair pro tem, reported that the incentive for the Image Use Protocol (IUP) task force came because North American scholars had many questions regarding location, access to and legal use of Japanese images. At the first task force meeting, held on August 29, 2007, participants from different fields met to exchange views and personal experience on accessing images and getting copyright permission in Japan. Participants included librarians, a museum curator, academics from various fields, and a publisher.

IUP Co-chairs Robin Le Blanc and Reiko Yoshimura were unable to attend, with members Eiko Sakaguchi and Ted Bestor stepping in to chair the two sessions. Robin Le Blanc's report circulated to the task force before the meeting was the foundation for much discussion. The report contained very useful information about the goals and direction the task force could take and included templates from art historians and librarians on various categories of copyright protection, a good summary of Japanese copyright law, and templates for permissions letters in both English and Japanese.

The domains of issues facing the task force include: 1) the use of images in publications; 2) the use of images in teaching; 3) Access to images for research purposes; and 4) clarification of copyright issues related to digitized archives of images. Although users who presented at the August 29th meeting came from diverse disciplines, there was considerable consensus about the needs of users, which was encouraging to the success of the task force.

The next steps of the task force are to: 1) conduct a survey of the Japanese studies field to seek a broader range of clear examples of both problems encountered and successful strategies used; 2) compile survey and discussion results into a set of best practices for image use within the field on Japanese studies; 3) draft a statement or letter to send to counterpart organizations in Japan, such as the Japan Book Publishers Association and the Japan Museums Association; and 4) possibly organize a meeting in Japan next summer to meet with Japanese publishers and image producers to review the IUP's guidelines prior to their publication on the NCC Website, making them freely available to all.

Reports from NCC Representatives from Collaborating Organizations:

Hwa-Wei Lee, Library of Congress (LC) representative, reported that since the last meeting at the University of Washington, Seattle, in January 2007, the Library of Congress held two symposia and one exhibition related to Japanese materials. Rare and special Japanese materials, historical and notable books, and contemporary Japanese prints were displayed during these events.

The Library of Congress has acquired several major titles in their effort to work more closely with the NCC's Multi-Volume Sets (MVS) Project in promoting cooperative collection development nationally. LC has recently purchased worthy titles for which adequate funding was not available in recent MVS grant years. New titles purchased through this cooperative endeavor include: 1) Tsurunoya Kobori Tomoto Bunko, and Chūgoku Tairiku Jūmanbun no ichi Chizu Shūsei 1-3 Manshū 1-3 (MVS 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively). The Library also acquired a microfilm set of Tsurunoya Kobori Tomoto Bunko [Tsurunoya Kobori Tomoto Library]. Tokyo: Yūshōdō Shuppan, 1996 (MVS 2005-06). And in addition, jointly funded by the Asian Division and the Geography & Map Division, the Library acquired Chugoku Tairiku Jumanbun no ichi Chizu Shusei 1-3: Manshu 1-3 [Maps/Atlas of Chinese Continent, scale 1/100,000, 1-3: Manchuria 1-3]. Tokyo: Kagaku Shoin, Kasumigaseki Shuppan, 2003-06 (MVS 2006-07). Susan Matisoff, MVS co-chair, thanked LC for its collaboration on the purchase of needed materials that were not funded by the MVS grant and for Eiichi Ito's participation in the MVS Committee.

Dr. Lee also mentioned plans to digitize the 41 volumes of the rare dictionary 康熙字典 Kōki jiten [Kangxi dictionary] and to make it accessible online. LC's holding is a reproduction of Japanese edition of the Chinese dictionary published in 1780. This material is thus invaluable, especially since LC's set is complete and well preserved. Tomoko Steen also added that the digitization project of the US Government Unit 731 biological materials data had processed with the help from Nichibunken.

In personnel matters, Mari Sakamoto has been appointed as Japanese Reference Librarian. She will begin her post on October 1, 2007.

Finally, he reported that the Asian Division is in the process of building an Asian Pacific American collection, to be initiated at a national conference to be held on October 4-5, 2007. This sparked a discussion among members about the recent growth of Asian American collections in the country and the importance of integrating them into American studies.

Martin Collcutt, representative of the Northeast Asia Council (NEAC), talked about the funding possibilities of NEAC. NEAC gives grants for Japanese and Korean studies up to $4,000. Funding on the Japan side is indebted to JUSFC, and NEAC has seen an increase in applicants due to online publicity. Recipients have been K-12 teachers, academics, artists, librarians, and researchers. Grants can be given for such things as seminars, instructional material, promotion of Japanese research, travel to Japan, conference support, distinguished lecturer series, and training of junior librarians. In light of cutbacks in funding from the Japan Foundation, NEAC might provide a good alternative for funding to librarians. He asked NCC members to encourage more librarians in the field to apply to NEAC as a means of support.

Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) representative, Keiko Yokota-Carter reported that the CEAL 2008 meeting will be April 2-4. CEAL will coordinate its materials committee meetings with the NCC. She added that the NCC is a wonderful model for Chinese and Korean librarians communities. For instance, its librarian training activities serve as inspirations for Korean and Chinese studies librarians as well.

Laura Hein, Japan Foundation American Advisory Committee (JF-AAC) Representative, continued the discussion from earlier in the morning by saying that fundamentally the relationship between the JF-AAC and Japanese studies has changed and in the future the AAC will be collaboratively looking for additional funding sources, not simply asking the JF for funding. JF America is in a difficult position vis à vis JF Japan. JF Japan must justify everything that comes in.

Meeting attendees expressed their opinions about the importance of continued funding from the Japan Foundation for individuals, library support, and independent projects. Faculty research grants that help faculty to get leave from institutes without sabbatical grants was cited as an example. She explained that matching funds help enhance awareness among the Japanese studies field and can do more than independent funding by shifting focus to helping a greater number of people.

Because the Japan Foundation eliminated dedicated library collection development funding, Tokiko Bazzell announced that the NCC's Japan Foundation Library Support Committee will be disbanded, once the Foundation makes the full announcements about the termination of all categories of library grants.

Akio Yasue, Japan Liaison, and retired Deputy Librarian of the National Diet Library, reported on the progress of points made at the CULCON 1997 conference and the current situation of ILL/DD requests between the United States and Japanese libraries. He outlined the three main ILL/DD services available for North American libraries to obtain Japanese documents: 1) the Global ILL Framework (GIF) Project; 2) the NDL ILL/DD Service; and 3) Waseda University's ILL/DD Service. Waseda University receives the most requests and has the best return rate with 62% of requests filled. It was thought that Waseda's current level of successful transactions is partly due to the longer term of the Waseda project than GIF and the NDL service and especially because Waseda is a full member of OCLC and their records are therefore more accessible via utilities that ILL librarians are familiar with. He concluded his report by noting the impact of digital resources on the acquisitions process which surely influences the acquisitions process in North America as well.

The discussion that ensued focused on the large number of requests that go unfilled. One member thought that the high rejection rate might be because Japanese libraries haven't updated their holding information rather than an indication of a lack of training among American library staff. If the records are not updated, perhaps users are simply asking for the wrong thing. Another noted that rejections are sometimes because the request is for material that cannot travel (such as dissertations). Chiaki Sakai, Chair of the ILL/DD Committee added that the GIF Japan liaison is working with the ILL/DD committee to make FAQ and troubleshooting websites to aid these problems. The discussion led naturally into her report.

The ILL/DD Committee Report was given by Chiaki Sakai, Committee co-chair. She began with news of personnel changes. In July 2007 Sharon Domier and Kathy Ridenour ended their terms, and Hiroyuki Good (Japanese Bibliographer) and Patricia Duff (Head of Interlibrary Load Department and Storage Facility), both from University of Pittsburgh, joined the committee.

She also discussed her work on behalf of the NCC and the field of Japanese studies in responding to the Section 108 Study Group. The Section 108 Study Group is reviewing that section of the Copyright Act, which allows libraries to make certain uses of copyrighted material to serve the public. The study group surveyed interested parties to help determine if a separate set of guidelines is needed for international electronic interlibrary loan services. The publishers of the group issued comments stating that international interlibrary loan should be governed by different rules. As co-chair of the ILL/DD committee she drafted comments providing statistics on ILL/DD between the US and Japan that argued that academic groups should not be bound by international boundaries in the transmission of documents.

In recent GIF promotion activities, the committee held a poster session at the AAS annual meeting in Boston where committee members explained the GIF project and their ILL/DD services in Japan to Japanese studies faculty and graduate students. In April, Hikaru Nakano and Michelle Foss conducted a joint E-Resource Workshop at the University of Florida. They covered 1) Japanese resources and databases that are available at the University of Florida libraries and; 2) how to order items via Interlibrary Loan for UF faculty and visitors attending the session. On June 23, 2007 over 30 librarians met at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. to discuss the GIF Project. The majority of librarians attending were from the Interlibrary Loan field plus several catalogers present. The meeting was successful in sharing information about the GIF project to attendees around the country.

Future activities of the committee include a plan to upgrade the GIF portal, currently under investigation by Hitoshi Kamada. If this project is undertaken, the program will be run on the Website, greatly improving ease of use. Another activity includes adding FAQ and troubleshooting sections for GIF librarian users to the Website. Hitoshi Kamada will give a presentation entitled, "Obtaining Japanese Materials Successfully: A Guide to the GIF Project" at the Western Conference of AAS in late September 2007.

The Librarian Professional Development Committee (LPDC) report was given by recently elected co-chair Maureen Donovan. She reported on the committee's second meeting on March 21, 2007, held during the AAS/CEAL 2007 annual meeting in Boston. Items discussed were 1) a new rotation schedule for committee members to avoid having an entire new committee at any one point. In related personnel news, Keiko Suzuko has joined the committee following the resignation of Kio Kanda. 2) The committee also discussed the best time and venue for future librarian training programs, and 3) Results of a survey on possible training program topics. Respondents were interested in training that crossed the spectrum of CJK areas and in repeating the Junior Japanese Studies Librarian Training Seminar (last offered in 2002). Interest was also expressed for ongoing, midcareer training, especially in Japanese electronic resources, digitizing, and legal issues. The committee decided that each committee member would review the survey results, plan a training module to support specific training needs and distribute module drafts among the committee members.

The first year of a three-year training program, the Tenri Antiquarian Materials Workshop for Overseas Japanese Studies Librarians (Tenri Workshop) took place from June 18th through June 22nd, 2007. The NCC assisted the Workshop by reviewing the announcement and the application form for North America, posting a call for applicants on Eastlib, and selecting the North American participants. The NCC is also acting as bursar for funds from the Japan Foundation earmarked for US participants. The workshop aims to establish a cohort of librarians expertly trained in the best practices for managing, cataloguing and organizing antiquarian manuscript and printed materials. They will serve as core persons responsible for providing guidance and training on such materials to colleagues in their respective countries/regions. This first-year workshop focused on early modern printed books through well-integrated lectures and hands-on training. Participants heard lectures on subjects ranging from the types of printing of Japanese antiquarian books to publishing in the early modern period and cataloging Japanese antiquarian books. The workshop was considered a success, and participants are hopeful that year two will be even more fruitful.

Tomoko Steen, chair of the Digital Resources Committee (DRC), reported that new information on databases has been added to the DRC Website: a chart comparing commercial Japanese database facts (pricing, guidelines, sample contracts); useful Japan/Asian databases; list of free Japanese databases; and useful Japanese law databases. In a discussion with Nikkei potential licensing the Nikkei representative reactions were positive. She also discussed plans for the next grilling session with vendors probably in conjunction with the CEAL/AAS Meetings in April 2008 in Atlanta. Tentative indications of interest have been received from Nikkei and NetAdvance. She ended by listing some of the things she hoped to accomplish working with her designated successor, to be elected later in the meeting.

The Multi-Volume Sets (MVS) Project report was given by co-chair, Susan Matisoff. The MVS Committee met to determine grants in light of two new guidelines: 1) that second-hand titles could be proposed for MVS funding, providing books are in acceptable condition to be lent overseas and that vendors agree to hold titles pending MVS's decision in February each year; 2) The charging of regular ILL fees is now permitted for MVS titles, but institutions must continue to freely circulate all volumes supported by MVS via ILL. For the 2006-07 MVS competition 19 titles were proposed for funding by 9 institutions. Five of the requested titles were for second-hand sets. Eleven titles were funded with grants going to 7 institutions for a 2006-07 MVS funding total of ¥9,976,328.

Vickey Bestor reported on the Japan Art Catalog Project (JAC) and JAC II. The Freer Gallery received $25,000 to catalog Asian art exhibition catalogs from Japan. On April 5, Columbia received a total of 514 Western art exhibition catalogs, the latest donation in the JAC Western Art Project and the first from the National Art Center Tokyo (NACT), which has taken charge of the JAC project. These will be cataloged by the Starr East Asian Library Technical Services Division and housed in the Avery Architecture and Fine Arts Library. The JAC II Project - donation of Japanese art exhibition catalogs from Western museums - has been reinitiated after being suspended since 1997, and a shipment of catalogs will soon go to NACT.

Maureen Donovan gave an update on the Japanese Company History Shashi Interest Group, which had asked to be affiliated with NCC in 2006. The Shashi Interest Group has decided to affiliate with AAS instead. The reasons for this are because AAS affiliation will facilitate the group's use of a meeting room at the AAS annual meeting. Affiliating with AAS may also facilitate their effort to directly engage with scholars.

NCC Administrative Reports:

Tokiko Bazzell presented her Chair's Travel Report on her NCC-related meetings in Tokyo at the Japan Foundation, National Diet Library, National Art Center Tokyo (NACT), Japan Publications Trading Company (JPTC), International House of Japan Library and the Japan Foundation Library from May 22 through May 25, 2007. The meetings focused on recent Japan Foundation funding application changes, which will affect the NCC's activities and other Japan Foundation funded projects, such as the Japanese Studies Information Specialists Training Program (JSIST). At the Japan Foundation meeting, Masako Yamamoto detailed the new program guidelines and gave advice on future applications. The NDL meeting focused on three main issues: 1) The future of the Japanese Studies Information Specialists Training (JSIST); 2) NDL's participation in UC Berkeley's Conference in October 2007; and 3) collaboration between NDL and NII in regards to Japan's institutional repository.

Tokiko Bazzell and Vickey Bestor reported on the E-Resources Training Initiative, which is coming to an end. The three-year project was conceived to provide a national program of hands-on user-training workshops which have proven to be very successful, reaching over 1,000 users over three years. During the first year a cohort of 33 librarian-instructors was trained in two intensive workshops to employ the best practices for offering hands-on user training in information literacy. During the subsequent two years over 50 workshops have been offered in all regions of the US, in Canada, Japan and Australia. Meeting attendees also previewed the new online tutorial on the GIF project completed as part of the Information Literacy Portal (ILR) and produced by ILR Task Force Chair Dawn Lawson.

Vickey Bestor reported on her recent Australia trip. She was invited to take part in a roundtable reporting on NCC activities at the Biennial meeting of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia. While there she took part in 5 library-related programs, two of which were part of the NCC's E-Resources Initiative. Other meetings were related to potential planning of future NCC projects and for brainstorming about North American-Australian Library and Information collaborations related to Japanese studies, as well as general networking in and among the Japanese studies and diplomatic communities of Australia. Scholars and librarians Vickey talked with expressed interests in joining NCC activities, such as E-Resources Workshops, the GIF project, DRC, and IUP, and in librarian training. The DRC has already provided online assistance to librarians in New Zealand who had questions about the licensing and use of a major database system widely in use in the US.

Day 2, Saturday, September 1, 2007

The second day of the NCC meeting opened with a presentation by guest speaker, Izumi Koide, Director of the Research Center on Entrepreneurship, Shibusawa Ei'ichi Memorial Foundation, entitled "Why archives matter?: Archival Materials & Archivists Conference." The presentation summarized the schedule of the Archives Seminar held in Japan in May 2007 and addressed the broader issue of the importance of archives, the need for mutual understanding of archival systems in the US and Japan, and the role of the librarian in archive access. The seminar was organized because the Society of American Archivists (SAA) felt there was a general lack of knowledge about the Japanese archival process. Five American archivists with no Japanese experience went to Japan to learn from their Japanese counterparts. Their findings were that archives in both countries face the same challenges in access and digitization, and more knowledge is needed of Japanese archival systems in the United States. Inequality in access to archives in Japan and the United States leads to an asymmetry in intellectual or academic knowledge. Librarians are integral to the provision of access, which underscores the importance of such a seminar. The Society of American Archivists will have all English speeches from the seminar online soon. The Japanese articles will be published in Japan.

After the presentation the meeting attendees discussed possible next steps, including training seminars across the United States, created with the help of SAA and librarians who deal with archival material. NCC and Nichibunken might work together to realize the seminars. Making archival collections known and accessible through digitization was also suggested.

Future Planning and Budgetary Needs:

Tokiko elicited opinions about the initial Japan Foundation application circulated to members the previous day. The responses were favorable. Among the suggestions was one for a future project assessing preservation efforts in North America. Perhaps a survey is needed to assess those efforts. It was suggested that the NCC might again play the role of advocate in such efforts and help to develop a set of Best Practices for Preservation.

The question was raised as to whether the NCC could play a role in articulating norms for different digitization projects. NCC might be able to advise smaller institutions on common quality standards. It was suggested one strategy might be working on a federated search across institutions. NCC could do a survey to learn what archival material is being held at institutions across the country. It was also noted that since archival material must be digitized in color, NCC might produce guidelines articulating minimum standards for digitization of materials.

The discussion then turned to funding these new projects. Masako Yamamoto of the Japan Foundation noted that NCC's preliminary application explains its funding needs well, but acceptance of the application depends on the direct competition it faces from the 60 other applications. Laura Hein the JF-AAC representative added the Japan Foundation does not wish to fund maintenance activities of any organization, so it is important to emphasize how NCC is expanding, going international, new agendas, etc.

It was also strongly suggested that NCC consider fundraising to create a stable endowment to make it a permanent organization. One council member voiced the difficulty in fundraising for an organization like the NCC, especially since members are so spread out across the country and world. It was also noted that because of the NCC's small staff size the organization must keep in mind that if a fundraising drive were to be undertaken, staff would have to forego other program management activities. Perhaps a separate fundraiser would need to be hired, since the current personnel would not have the time to fundraise and still develop new programs. Also, since all the council members work for other institutions, they may have a conflict of interest in assisting NCC in fundraising efforts. Masako Yamamoto stressed that if NCC undertakes a fundraising drive the Japan Foundation could be a partner in those efforts in Japan. The ideal of making NCC a membership organization should be considered or by creating a class of patrons or benefactors; institutions that might donate annually to the NCC.

Tokiko Bazzell gave a report on the feasibility study done in the spring on materials re-use and offered suggested revisions to the Resource Re-Use Feasibility Study. Despite strong concern from the Japanese side due to the amount of labor needed to fulfill requests and ship materials, it is generally felt the study was a success. The project was able to help 11 universities, and 75% of the available materials were distributed. The amount of labor continues to be an issue. It took the US side 8 hours to determine the distribution, but many more hours communicating with individuals. The ¥3000/carton charge for shipping was also considered too low if this project were to continue in the future. A more realistic amount is ¥5000-¥6000/carton. The project also relies on huge amounts of time donated by the donor university and the shipping company. The final recommendation was that the program is workable, but perhaps not every year. If Japanese institutions want to re-use their duplicates, then it is possible. The NCC will work directly the contributing library to coordinate the Re-Use project. Even if many institutions have duplicates they are willing to donate, they might be wary of undertaking the project due to the labor involved, so most likely the program will be self-pacing. Tokiko will send the suggested revisions to the JANUL and ask the JANUL members to discuss its future based on the study result and the revisions.

Future NCC Meeting Logistics and Venues:

A proposal was made to change the format of NCC Open Meetings to include more content sessions. The new plan provides for the advance dissemination of all reports electronically. In future committee co-chairs will not make individual reports at the meeting, rather there will be a general question and answer session during which time questions can be directed to a given committee and answered by the chair or members of that committee. The goal is to make NCC Open Meetings a greater forum for discussion of issues, the raising of questions, and the making of recommendations for future activities. The NCC Council fully endorsed this program change. The next NCC Open Meeting will follow this new format and is scheduled for Thursday, April 3, 2008 at the CEAL/AAS annual meeting in Atlanta, GA.

The next working meeting for NCC will be hosted by Susan Matisoff at the University of California, Berkeley on January 11-12, 2008.

The August 2008 Meeting is tentatively planned to be hosted by Tokiko Bazzell at the University of Hawaii, Manoa and to be held in conjunction with a librarian training planning conference. Final dates will be announced.

The NCC will explore the possibility of holding the January 2009 working meeting at Princeton hosted by Martin Collcutt. Further investigation of Princeton's willingness to host will be pursued.

Election of the NCC Council/DRC Chair Position for July 2008 to June 2011 was held. The new chair of the Digital Resource Committee will succeed Tomoko Steen, whose term ends in June 2008. The future chair was elected to overlap with the incumbent for six months to ensure a smoother transition to the position. Two candidates were being considered and Keiko Yokota-Carter, Japanese Studies Librarian, University of Washington (and current CEAL representative) was elected.

At the conclusion of the meeting Chair Tokiko Bazzell thanked the members and guests who attended and closed the August/September 2007 meeting.