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

 

University of Washington

Suzzallo Library, 5th Floor Conference Room

January 12-13, 2007

Agenda

Copies of the Reports made at the January 2007 NCC Meeting can be found by clicking the relevant links.

Present: Officers: Chair Tokiko Bazzell, University of Hawaii; Executive Committee Members: Susan Matisoff, University of California, Berkeley; Kenji Niki, University of Michigan; Executive Director Victoria Bestor, NCC/ Harvard University. Council Members: Robin LeBlanc, Washington and Lee University; Eiko Sakaguchi, University of Maryland; Tomoko Steen, Library of Congress; Syun Tutiya, Chiba University; Martin Collcutt, NEAC, Princeton University; Veronica Taylor, University of Washington Law School (substituting for Laura Hein of JF-AAC); Keiko Yokota-Carter, CEAL Representative, University of Washington; Hwa-Wei Lee, Library of Congress Representative; Chiaki Sakai, University of Iowa. Observers: Toshie Marra, University of California Los Angeles; Hitoshi Kamada, University of Arizona; Keiji Shono, Japan Foundation; Kia Cheleen, Japan Foundation; Margaret Mihori, US- Japan Friendship Commission; Lizabeth Wilson, Dean of the University Libraries, University of Washington; Zhijia Shen, Director of East Asian Library, University of Washington; and Robert Britt, University of Washington Law School

Welcoming Remarks: Meeting host Keiko Yokota-Carter, introduced colleague Zhijia Shen, Director, East Asian Library, University of Washington, who welcomed the NCC on behalf of the University of Washington. New Chair, Tokiko Bazzell then opened the meeting and welcomed new Council members Robin Le Blanc, Chiaki Sakai, Hitoshi Kamada, Martin Collcutt, representing NEAC, and thanked Veronica Taylor for representing the Japan Foundation AAC and substituting for Laura Hein. Bazzell also thanked Rob Britt for his excellent workshop on electronic Japanese legal research and Keiko Yokota-Carter for her library tour, both were held on January 11. Rob's workshop was part of the E-Resources Training Initiative funded by the Japan Foundation. She then expressed appreciation for Ms. Betsy Wilson's presentation and hosting the luncheon for the Council members.

Reports from Funding Agencies:

Margaret Mihori provided a brief report from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission noting that no Commission meeting had taken place since the last NCC Meeting and therefore there was nothing new to report. She did announce that the JUSFC website has been newly re-designed by NCC Webmaster Brigid Laffey, who will also undertake the re-design of the CULCON Website in the near future. She also spoke briefly about the Bridging Fellowships that support language study. 13 undergraduates received supplemental Bridging grants of up to $4,000 for those staying one semester and a maximum of $5,000 for those studying abroad for a full academic year. She also noted that Commission income continues to be reduced due to the low interest rates of its investments. There are currently 4 vacancies on the Commission and names have been presented to the White House for review.

Because of Mr. Shono's delayed arrival the Japan Foundation report took place later in the day.

Reports from NCC Representatives from Collaborating Organizations and Constituencies:

Library of Congress (LC) Hwa-Wei Lee provided an update on the exciting events that have happened throughout the fall at the Library of Congress and a number of planned activities for 2007. The past year proved to be a very productive year for the Japanese collection at the Library of Congress. As of October 1st, the monographic collections had grown to include 1,155,668 volumes and the number of active serial titles numbered 5,614. The expenditure in FY 2006 had reached an all time high of $342,324. Hwa-Wei Lee went on to explain that despite the growth and spending in FY 2006, the budget for FY 2007 had not yet been passed and that the Library of Congress is currently functioning under a "continuing resolution" budget, meaning that spending must remain at the same level as for the same period of the past fiscal year on a month-to-month basis.

Last fall, Professor Shigemi Inaga (the International Research Center for Japanese Studies) was appointed as Chair of Modern Culture in the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. While serving as Chair, Professor Inaga expects to finish the third volume of his History on Modern Art in a Cross-Cultural Context.

In December, the new Director General of the Japan Foundation, New York, Mr. Isao Tsujimoto, accompanied by Mr. Akihiro Murata from the Center for Global Partnership, was on a visit and tour of the Asian Division and Japanese Collections at the Library of Congress.

Hwa-Wei Lee also provided information regarding upcoming events being planned by the Library of Congress. The Asian Division Friends Society is hosting a symposium Japanese Treasures at the Library of Congress which will be held on March 27, 2007. The Asian Division and the Asian Division Friends Society in conjunction with the Embassy of Japan are also hosting a half-day symposium, Highlights of Japan-U.S. Relationship: History, Cultural Exchange, and Future Development on April 6, 2007.

In addition to the symposia, the Library of Congress has also been working with the College Women's Association of Japan to bring over 200 contemporary Japanese fine art prints to the Prints and Photographs Collection for an exhibition. He also announced that the Asian Division has hired Kiyoyo Pipher who previously worked in the Serials and Government Publications Division at LC.

Northeast Asia Council (NEAC): Newly appointed NEAC Representative Martin Collcutt provided an update stressing that NEAC grants are open to librarians and that NEAC encourages more applications from members of the library community in as many categories as may be appropriate. He noted that short-term travel grants to Japan are limited to $3,000 and the maximum in any other category is $5,000. He briefly outlined the other categories of grants available from NEAC and encouraged everyone to review application guidelines on NEAC's site at http://www.aasianst.org/grants/grants.htm#NEAC-JAPAN. He further stressed the importance of demonstrating the "need based" nature of any requests. There are two deadlines a year, February 1st for grants reviewed before AAS and October 1st for grants reviewed at NEAC's fall meeting. For further questions people should contact the AAS staff in charge of grants.

Keiko Yokota-Carter gave the Council on East Asian Libraries report. She spoke briefly about the ad-hoc meeting held at Tokyo University on September 1, 2006 to discuss Japan-US Digital Resources. She also reported that the CJM webpage has been enhanced to include new resources, such as the "Annotated list of reference materials in Japan" and the "Descriptive Cataloguing Guidelines for pre-Meiji Japanese books."

Keiko also provided the group with an overview of the agenda for the March 20-21st CEAL Meeting to be held this year in Boston. Included was a detailed discussion about the Committee on Japanese Materials session that will be held on the second day of the conference. The key focus of the CJM meeting will be on Japanese studies in a global world. She also brought the Council's attention to a possible project of archiving the history of Japanese studies librarians, which was raised by Ms. Emiko Moffit, a former librarian of the Stanford University. Victoria Bestor will contact Ms. Moffit for further information.

The Japan Liaison report was given by Syun Tutiya. He expressed his continued pessimism about the impact of Hojinka on the National University system. An interim assessment on that impact will be made in FY 07. The FY 07 budget includes static funding in the areas of science, technology and higher education with an emphasis on information technology, especially digital content. He noted that in MEXT materials the only mention of libraries is with regard to public and school (pre-college) libraries, otherwise libraries are virtually ignored by MEXT.

He reiterated his great concern over the retirements of senior librarians in the National University System that will take place in March 2007. These include Mr. Sasakawa of Tokyo University, Mr. Ohno of Kyoto University, and Mr. Konishi of the National Institute for Informatics. He also expressed continued concern about private universities and the irregular quality of their library staff. Public libraries, he said, are even worse off and many of their library operations are now being outsourced. He also noted that within university libraries there is growing pressure to merge job classifications such as merging the classifications of librarians with computer specialists.

He mentioned that NII currently has 57 projects underway related to Japanese libraries. More than 60 libraries will soon have institutional repositories. NII is also working to share information on copyright with publishing societies. He also spoke briefly about the need for change in the Japanese system for dissertation depositing and copying which are now becoming prohibitively expensive to new PhD holders.

With regard to the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) he said that almost no changes have been made to their J-Dream database. He also noted that the J-Stage archive of journals is still sorely lacking in journals in the humanities and social sciences.

The regular meeting between librarians and copyright holders has most recently been looking at privacy issues for the physically and mentally handicapped.

Since this was Professor Tutiya's last report as the NCC's Japan Liaison he offered a few observations. Noting the overwhelming growth of online and digital resources he commented that the Global ILL Framework may be one of the last bi-national projects that will be largely focused on the transmission of "paper" based resources. Much of GIF focuses on the sending and receiving in books and documents through international interlibrary loan conveyed across the Pacific by expedited courier rather than transmitted electronically, which he sees as the dominant mode in the future. GIF has been quite successful but he noted that in the future great digitization may make such programs obsolete.

Despite his earlier comments about the problems being encountered by Japanese University libraries because of the mass retirements of senior librarians, he noted that an excellent new generation of Japanese librarians is coming onto the scene. He encouraged the NCC to make every possible effort to meet and work with these new librarians and to bring them into NCC projects and committees whenever possible.

Following the Japan Liaison report the NCC welcomed Lizabeth Wilson, Dean of University Libraries at the University of Washington who spoke on the theme of Any Time, Any Place, Any Way: Realizing the Promise of the 21st Century Research Library.

Her talk focused on the mission of libraries today to connect people to knowledge on a global scale. A key theme of her talk was "listening to our users and doing what they tell us." Please see the PowerPoints of her presentation on the NCC Website, as listed above.

Following Lizabeth Wilson's talk she invited NCC members to join her at the University of Washington Faculty Club for lunch.

The first report of the afternoon was that of Keiji Shono of the Japan Foundation. He began his report by announcing new appointments at the Japan Foundation. Isao Tsujimoto is assuming the position of Director General of the Japan Foundation New York Office. He previously served as Deputy Director of the JFNY (Mr. Shono's current position) and also a Director General of the Japan Foundation's Los Angeles office and language center. Other major appointments are those of Natsuo Amemiya to head the Americas Region; Junichi Chano as head of the Japanese Studies Division (replacing Mr. Komatsu), and Masako Yamamoto was promoted to Director for the general coordination for the Americas Division.

With regard to the Japan Studies Information Specialist Training program (JSIST) he announced that clear plans for the future should be known in March. However he hopes that some librarians from the US and Canada will be able to take part in the next program offered, or in the subsequent one. As requested at the previous meeting, he sent the hard copies of the documents on the past and immediate past JSIST to the NCC Chair and Executive Director. In answer to questions raised at previous meetings about the Japanese Literature in Translation database created by PEN Japan, Mr. Shono announced that submissions by the translators themselves were acceptable but that only already published works will be considered.

NCC Committees and Task Force Reports

Susan Matisoff provided a brief update from the Multi-Volume Sets (MVS) committee. In her report she provided the group with an overview of the number of pre-screening applications received and gave a status report on the FY2007 pre-screening results in comparison with those of the previous year. The final application deadline was January 12, 2007, the date she was speaking, so no details were available on the number or kinds of applications received.

The Librarian Professional Development Committee (LPDC) report was given by Eiko Sakaguchi who reported that the final LPDC survey results were received, compiled and would prove to be very helpful to the committee as it moves forward in planning and evaluating the various training program possibilities. The survey was completed by 49 librarian/specialists and provided the committee with 11 "high priority" training topics. The LPDC will meet at the CEAL Meetings in Boston in March to prioritize the topics and to make recommendations to the NCC about future training needs.

In addition, she spoke briefly about plans for the first of three Tenri Workshop on rare and early printed materials which is scheduled to take place in June 2007 at Tenri University in Japan. LPDC Co-Chair Sachie Noguchi is part of the preparatory committee for the Tenri Workshop led by Professor Hideo Yamanaka of Tenri University, Izumi Tytler of Oxford University, and Hamish Todd of the British Library.

Tomoko Steen presented her report as Digital Resources Committee (DRC) Co-chair, reviewing the two-year goals that she and previous DRC Chair Ellen Hammond established. Tomoko provided the group with an overview on how she and the committee have worked together over the past two years to accomplish each of the goals. The three goals: educating Japanese Studies librarians; working with librarians and library organizations in Japan; and approaching vendors to effect changes desired by the library communities. The DRC has undertaken a variety of initiatives including the creation of an information website, digital resources workshops, memos to vendors, journal articles, conference presentations, meetings at Japanese and North American libraries, establishing guidelines and vendor requirements to educate them about the needs of North American libraries.

NCC Chair Tokiko Bazzell also announced that Tomoko Steen has agreed to continue on as DRC Chair through the end of her term on the NCC (until June 30, 2008). In agreeing to continue to serve Tomoko urged the NCC to elect the person who will become her successor at the earliest possible time to ensure that there will be overlap in their tenures.

Chiaki Sakai provided the Council with the Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery (ILL/DD) Committee report. She began by announcing that the new Co-Chair is Amy Paulus the ILL Librarian at the University of Iowa (continuing the successful practice of having the committee co-chairs be a team made up of the Japanese studies librarian and ILL librarian from the same institution.) She noted that Su Chen of the University of Minnesota has also joined the Committee as an East Asian studies librarian member and the past co-chairs Sharon Domier and Kathryn Ridenour of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst will continue as advisors to the committee after July 2007.

She thanked Michelle Foss ILL librarian member from the University of Florida for her recent ILLiad Workshop and for the set of comments from the workshop participants that she shared with the Committee. These comments will be useful for developing a FAQ section for the GIF webpage. The ILL/DD Committee is planning a new GIF brochure. Hitoshi Kamada has enhanced his GIF holding check program to verify the holding library information on WebcatPlus. NCC webmaster, Brigid Laffey has uploaded the program onto the committee website where the enhanced program is now available at: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ncc/illdd/gifholdingscheckprogram.html. Now the list of North American GIF participating libraries is managed by the Committee with the help of Brigid Laffey and Yoko Okunishi. The updated list with a brand new look is available at http://www.nccjapan.org/gif.asp.

Vickey Bestor and Tokiko Bazzell provided the Council with an overview of the E-Resources Training Initiatives. The program has been extremely successful providing over 30 training sessions in all parts of the US, Canada and in Japan to date. Vickey announced that the Japan Foundation has granted a no-cost extension to the third year of the grant until September 30, 2007 that will allow more time for programs and for the development of the tutorials and other materials for the Information Literacy Portal.

Tokiko provided an update on Dawn Lawson's report as Coordinator of the NCC Information Literacy Resources Portal Task Force. Dawn has graciously agreed to remain as Coordinator of the task force through September 2007. In addition, Dawn also asked the task force members to remain on through her tenure as well. The task force has made significant progress on their agenda for the year including the assessing the AskEASL guides for currency, accuracy and appropriateness. They have also reviewed new information literacy content to eventually be added to the portal, developed a new guide to the CiNii service, and continue to monitor ALA's ili-l listserv for complimentary material and potential collaborations.

In the next six months, the task force plans to continue to lead the research and development of prototypes of online tutorials and to work through the materials produced in all of the E-Resources workshops in 2006 and 2007 to identify what should be added or modified for posting on the portal.

Vickey also announced that another workshop has been added to the current series to take place on August 30, 2007 at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. That workshop will focus on the nearly 30,000 images of Japanese prints that have recently been digitized by the MFA and will explore ways to better use and integrate those materials into Japanese studies teaching and research.

Written reports on the Japan Art Catalog Project (JAC) were provided by Reiko Yoshimura, Sachie Noguchi and Victoria Bestor. Reiko Yoshimura was happy to report another generous donation this year to allow the Freer to hire a part-time cataloger for the JAC Asian materials. This person processes over 250 titles each year.

Sachie Noguchi's report noted that a schedule for cataloging the JAC Western Collection has been established under the leadership of Hideyuki Morimoto.

Vickey Bestor reported on her recent exchange with Mariko Shiratori at the National Art Center Tokyo. Receiving catalog donations to the JAC II exchange is still a difficult. However some recent progress has been made; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts will make donations. A solicitation strategy focused on personal contact rather than written communications with museums and museum curators will be employed in the future. Discussions are underway with Japan Art History Forum (JAHF) about using their list to further publicize JAC II and individual members of the Council were asked to seek catalog donations from their local museums. Margaret Mihori of the JUSFC expressed her willingness to be helpful if she hears of exhibitions that might have catalogs appropriate for JAC II.

NCC Administrative Reports

Victoria Bestor provided the group with an update and sample copies of the Council Handbook and NCC Staff Manual for Council review. She thanked the Council members for their time in reviewing both documents and discussed strategies for their use and for keeping content current.

She also briefly discussed upcoming NCC publications and Website developments and encouraged individual committee chairs to be in touch with NCC Web Master Brigid Laffey if they have any comments, revisions, or Website needs. Following the publication and public information overview, Vickey presented her administrative report for FY 2006-07 and her proposed budget for FY 2007-08 which continue at past levels.

Tokiko Bazzell presented the nominations for the Council's Japan Liaison along with the NCC Bylaw and Council Handbook descriptions for that position. Candidates' qualifications were discussed and the Council elected Akio Yasue, former Deputy Librarian of the National Diet Library, to succeed Syun Tutiya as the next Japan Liaison beginning in July, 1, 2007. His term will run through June 30, 2010.

With time still remaining the Council discussed Sharon Domier's recommendation from the September 2006 Meeting that the AskEASL project be concluded having completed its mission. In the interval between meetings NCC Chair Tokiko Bazzell and DRC Chair Tomoko Steen had undertaken research on other virtual reference services and finding that a number of large and fully staffed services exist, they supported Sharon's recommendation for the termination of AskEASL. The Council voted to accept that recommendation and to conclude the AskEASL project and website over the next few months working in consultation with CEAL's Committee on Public Services which co-sponsors AskEASL.

Tokiko Bazzell also noted that the Shashi Interest Group (Company Histories) has requested that the NCC table their request for affiliation until after the group meets in its annual meeting in conjunction with the AAS. The NCC will await further communication from the Shashi Interest Group before taking further action.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

The first item on the Saturday morning agenda was an update on the Japanese Resources Re-Use Plan presented by Tokiko Bazzell and Toshie Marra. A number of concerns about the logistics of the project were raised and after full discussion the Council recommended that the initial "pilot" proceed and be re-classified the "Japanese Resources Re-Use Feasibility Study." The study will otherwise follow the test schedule that Mr. Sasakawa outlined, with the test being concluded in March 2007. Tokiko Bazzell and Toshie Marra will manage the feasibility study on the US side and Sakurako Ichimura will lead it on the Tokyo University side. The Japan Publications Trading Company (JPT) will handle the transfer of materials with US-side recipients paying all the shipping and handling costs, billed directly to them by JPT.

Professor Veronica Taylor of the University of Washington Law School apologized for the unexpected administrative meetings that prevented her attending on Friday and she then made the report for the Japan Foundation American Advisory Committee (JF-AAC). The JF-AAC annual meeting was yet to take place so no summary of that meeting was possible.

She reported on the Japan Foundation Library Support grant applications noting that the number of applications remains steady, however, there seems to be some flux in the categories in which institutions are applying. There are no B-2 category applications this year. Most applications are in the A-1 and A-2 categories. One surprise she notes is that there seem to be institutions that are re-applying in the A-1 category after already receiving A-1 support in the past. Changing the wording in the application FAQ was suggested to clarify the rules. She also noted that the maximum that any institution can apply for has been cut for 2007.

Tokiko Bazzell then launched a discussion about future committee and task force needs of the NCC. Specifically Sharon Domier's suggestion from the September 2006 Round Robin Brainstorming Session to create guidelines for faculty and graduate students who are in need of permissions or other forms of clearance to use images in publication or for teaching purposes (including on class websites). There was general agreement on that need. A number of members noted the highly delicate nature of the subject especially with Japanese publishers and it was agreed that the task force should be known as "The Image Use Protocol Task Force." Robin Le Blanc, the NCC's new social science faculty member, agreed to become co-chair of the task force. Others who were suggested are possible members were: Toshiko Takenaka of the University of Washington Law School; Ian Condry of MIT; Theodore Bestor of Harvard University; Reiko Yoshimura of the Freer Gallery of Art; Laura Driussi formerly of the University of California Press and now with Google; new Japan Liaison Akio Yasue; Salil Mehra at Temple Law School; as well as representatives from the Waseda University library; and from the Japanese group that works on the management of reprographic rights. Tokiko, Vickey and Robin will work further on establishing task force membership and outlining its agenda.

Outgoing NCC Chair Toshie Marra made a few remarks looking back on her years at the NCC. She especially commented on the tight budget that the NCC operates on and expressed her hope that future fund-raising could successfully expand the NCC's operating budget. She regretted that there was not elasticity in the budget that would allow for funds to be allocated to committees for independent face-to-face meetings or for the travel of committee chairs to important meetings related to the mission of their committees.

New NCC Chair Tokiko Bazzell made a few comments in response to Toshie's remarks and with regard to her thoughts for the coming three years. She thanked Toshie for her service and presented her with a small token from the NCC Council's in thanks for her devoted service over the last four years as Chair-Elect and Chair. A compilation of their remarks will appear in the annual issue of the NCC Newsletter, Issue # 20.

Tokiko Bazzell then presented the agenda for the 2007 Open Meeting at Harvard University on Friday, March 23, 2007. During the meeting NDL would like to have a suggestion session and a notice will be posted on Eastlib to gather comments from the field.

The next NCC Working Meeting will be August 31 and September 1, 2007 at Harvard University hosted by Executive Director Victoria Bestor with support from the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. On August 30th there will be an E-Resources Workshop at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts focused on the digital images of their Japanese print collection, which is expected to be the final workshop of the NCC's three-year E-Resources Initiative funded by the Japan Foundation.

The January 2008 Working Meeting will be at University of California Berkeley on a date to be determined. Prior to the meeting there will be tours of the new CV Starr East Asian Library at Berkeley and a workshop on their rare books and other materials.

Council Members expressed the hope that sometime during Tokiko's term as NCC Chair a Working Meeting could be held at the University of Hawaii. Tokiko agreed to look into costs, noting that it may be feasible if the meeting were held in the off-season, perhaps in August 2008. She will investigate costs and report back to the NCC at the next Working Meeting.