North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources
Summary of the Meeting held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Campus Center
Executive Dining Room, August 18 and 19, 2008.

 

Copies of the Reports made at the meeting on August 18 and 19, 2008 can be found by clicking the relevant links.

Present: Tokiko Y. Bazzell (Chair), Victoria Bestor (Executive Director), Martin Collcutt, Maureen Donovan, Eiichi Ito, Hitoshi Kamada, Robin LeBlanc, Haruko Nakamura, Chiaki Sakai, Veronica Taylor, Akio Yasue, Keiko Yokota-Carter, Absent: Michael Bourdaghs. Observing: Noriko Asato, Patricia Crosby, Wayne Ferris, Mitsuhiro Inada, Peter Kanehiro, Izumi Koide, Hisami Springer and Quillon Arkenstone (rapporteur).

Tuesday, August 18, 2008

Morning Session (9:00 to 12:00)

Paula Mochida, Interim University Librarian of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, welcomed the Council members on behalf of the Library.

Reports from Funding Agencies

Japan-US Friendship Commission: The first items discussed were the CULCON reports provided by Margaret Mihori especially the General Policy Recommendations document.

There was general discussion on how NCC and the larger field can more effectively reach and provide input to CULCON. Within the context of new recommendations a CULCON-sponsored exhibition of art/special collections was also mentioned as a possible option for the curators exchange initiative discussed in the report. The absence in the report of mention of CULCON's Cross Currents website was noted with some concern and surprise.

Questions were raised as to the meaning of the terms "cultural and intellectual exchanges" and "public intellectuals" as used in the CULCON Report. English terms seem to lack focus on scholarly and educational exchanges and the documents contain no reference to important roles for "universities" or "libraries" per se. The wording may indicate an alarming trend in CULCON's focus turning away from the scholarly field of Japanese studies. Several Council members wondered in what sense, "cultural and intellectual exchanges" and "public intellectuals" might be used in a Japanese language version of the report. Mr. Inada of the Japan Foundation will search for a Japanese version of the General Policy Recommendations to provide better clarifications. Members also expressed an interest in seeing the Japanese website. The URL for that website has since been located and can be found at http://www.jpf.go.jp/culcon/.

CULCON's general situation and the impact of the current transition in its membership were discussed. Some wondered if the General Policy Recommendations should be interpreted as a warning to the Japanese Government regarding the insufficient funding of Japan-US relations. The question was raised as to whom all the NCC should communicate with to best reach the ears of CULCON Members, especially those in Japan; Pamela Fields was mentioned as the main staff contact; also suggested were Commissioners Susan Pharr, Robert Feldman, and Ellen Hammond. It was agreed that a coordinated strategy should be developed to communicate with them all. Further communications with the Commission on the new directions of CULCON was recommended. Vickey Bestor was asked to follow up with Margaret Mihori, Pamela Fields and others. If possible Vickey Bestor will try to visit the JUSFC to provide an update on this NCC Meeting, to discuss other issues related to NCC, and to learn more about the CULCON Meeting.

Japan Foundation Report: Mitsuhiro Inada made his report from the Japan Foundation, centering on the new Institutional Project Support (IPS) program. Discussion ensued regarding the program's application procedures; clarification was given that an institution can reapply for grants provided the reapplication does not contain the same project as has been previously funded. There will be no new Japan Foundation grant round in the coming year; the next grant round for fiscal year 2010-11 will be announced in spring 2009.

An NCC project infusing digital resources into small institutions was suggested as the possible focus of a future NCC grant.

Mr. Inada remarked that since the Library Support Program has been discontinued and because NCC has received an IPS grant, the Japan Foundation questions the necessity of keeping an AAC representative on the NCC Council. Several Council members emphasized the importance of such a representative to expand and improve faculty input on the NCC. Discussion continued on the subject of funding. It was noted that the Japan Foundation-NCC relationship is reciprocal and that the NCC's advisory capabilities should be acknowledged; all present expressed the hope that the relationship between the two organizations remains strong going into the future.

Discussion moved to the Japan Foundation's efforts to obtain additional funds from sources outside the Japanese government; Japanese corporations in the United States constitute one avenue being pursued. More was discussed on the subject during day two and can be found in later portions of the summary.

Northeast Asian Council (NEAC): Martin Collcutt gave his report bringing the greetings of NEAC Chair Barbara Brooks and emphasizing that NEAC should be considered a possible funding source for individual travel and research, and for small conferences. The next deadline for NEAC applications is October 1, 2008.

He also spoke of the general picture at Princeton University where he notes a decline in their graduate student yield. The report concluded with the assertion that the Japan studies field needs encouragement and support and is presently declining in comparison with Chinese and Korean studies at Princeton and many if not most of the other major institutions.

Library of Congress Eiichi Ito prefaced his report by advertising the opening in the position of Chief of the Asian Division at the Library of Congress encouraging members of the Council to apply or forward recommendations of nominees. The Council members unanimously acknowledged and praised the initiatives and accomplishments of Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee during his tenure as Chief of the Asian Division.

Eiichi reported on the recent visit to LC of Dr. Nagao the Librarian of the National Diet Library who expressed his support for future collaborations among LC, NDL and NCC on librarian training.

The Library of Congress report raised several issues, the first of which was the question of how the NCC might get better acquainted with Koichiro Matsuura (the Director General of UNESCO). It was also suggested that the NCC contact Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress, Dr. Deanna Marcum to provide an update on NCC activities and to explore the prospect of her speaking at NCC's 3-D Conference in March 2010. When Vickey is able to make a trip to Washington DC to meet with JUSFC and CULCON staff she should also meet with Deanna Marcum and others at LC.

Noting that his term on the Multi-Volume Sets Committee has come to an end, Eiichi asked that NCC continue to send LC the list of qualified requests to MVS that are not able to be funded so that LC can consider the prospect of purchasing some of those materials for their collection.

The Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) report was given by new CJM Chair and CEAL Representative Haruko Nakamura and dealt with issues related to CJM and other CEAL Committee's funding. It was asked why grants to CEAL Committees are limited to five hundred dollars when CEAL has such a significant cash reserve. Such tight funding greatly inhibits CEAL Committees from taking on major projects and from organizing more complex programs. Haruko was asked to raise this issue with the CEAL Executive Committee; she agreed to do so.

Discussion then focused on past confusion with regards the activity spheres of CEAL and the NCC, and it was suggested that a clearer delineation of duties between the two organizations might lead to better cooperation, beneficial given the budget limitations of both organizations. It was noted that NCC was created to be an organization that bridges faculty needs and funder constraints to mutually benefit and strengthen library and information services to Japanese studies throughout the field. NCC was especially created to more effectively respond to faculty research needs and requests to more broadly serve faculty and students in smaller institutions that may not have significant East Asian language collections and may not have librarians who speak Japanese.

CEAL, in contrast, is a professional association of East Asian studies librarians for mutual benefit and education of librarians. In the past both CJM and NCC have undertaken librarian training programs but in light of funding constraints it was suggested that perhaps in the future the Committee on Japanese Materials (CJM) might assume greater responsibility for librarian professional development with NCC playing a collaborating and supportive role assisting CJM in fundraising and other tasks. The Tenri Workshops organized by the UK Librarians Group and the faculty of Tenri University with NCC playing a more limited role, was noted as a possible model. It was also noted that at the January 2008 NCC Working Meeting the Council reaffirmed that among its three program-priorities access services and collection development take precedence over librarian professional training. In a climate of growing funding constraints the NCC Council emphasized that should cuts be necessary they should be made first in the area of librarian training because other organizations (CEAL and international librarian groups like the UK group) can undertake such programs. Whereas access services for faculty and other users and cooperative collection development are among the chief areas that NCC was created to serve.

With regard to fund-raising done by CEAL it was noted that because CEAL is under the umbrella of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) it is required to first report fund-raising plans to them to confirm that no other AAS committee is applying for any given funding. Additionally, as a sub-group of AAS, CEAL is not allowed to maintain its own bank account. As an independent nonprofit there may be ways that NCC can assist CJM on collaborative projects.

The Japan Foundation American Advisory Committee report was given by Professor Veronica Taylor, chair of the American Advisory Committee (AAC) for the Japan Foundation. It was explained that, although the NCC will continue to be a Japan Foundation grant recipient, the relationship between the two entities is evolving. It is somewhat anomalous for a funding body to send a representative to participate in the deliberations of a grant recipient. This needs to be reassessed going into the future. Should a JF-AAC representative continue to serve on NCC, that person could not be part of the deliberations regarding any IPS committee, and therefore may not be the best person to give advice on grant proposals. The NCC was urged to look for advice from people not currently serving as AAC members such as those individuals who have most recently rotated off the JF-AAC. Taylor also mentioned that there is currently no representative from the library and information field on the AAC that further inhibits the AAC's ability to keep pace with and to fully understand the changing needs of the Japan-related library field.

The criteria for the new IPS program were discussed, with certain points being highlighted. Originally the Foundation did not plan to allow Tanaka Ten institutions to apply for IPS grants but that policy has since been reconsidered and all institutions are now potential applicants.

In a strong application to IPS the committee is looking for:

The NCC was urged to be proactive in promoting its services to potential Japan Foundation applicants such as institutions receiving Japan Foundation's small encouragement grants and those who received funding to build new Japanese studies programs at their university.

The latest NCC application was discussed, with the explanation given that the reduced grant amount signifies that the NCC's next proposal needs to be different. The most recent grant was seen as containing too many "planning components" and having too many constituent parts (components). However the AAC recognizes that NCC has a unique role in the field and that planning and instituting new programs is part of NCC's mandate.

The floor was opened for questions, and clarification of what constitutes "clear deliverables" was requested. It was stated that no definition of "deliverables" as such currently exists, and that this is still a flexible and forming concept. Veronica also noted the concept of "big box objectives" that more diversely spread resources across and within the US. It was noted that such a perspective should benefit the NCC which has an excellent track record of producing greater numbers of programs (deliverables) than have been initially requested in recent grant proposals and to distributing them broadly nationally and internationally. NCC needs to further describe itself and its mandate within the context of Japan Foundation's changed guidelines.

Wayne Ferris who was attending as an observer and faculty member at UH has recently rotated off the JF-AAC noted that there is a need for more applications to JF with social science content. There are too many that focus on history and literature. This predominance tends also to be true among Abe Fellowship applications and those to Fulbright, he noted.

Veronica Taylor also noted that particularly in applications from large institutions there is a need for a coherent commitment among stakeholders within that institution to projects being proposed. The report closed with the assertion that total funds available for dispersal by the Japan Foundation will remain static in the foreseeable future.

The Japan Liaison's report was given by Akio Yasue focused on Japanese legislative issues relating to library archives and scholarships in Japan. It was made clear that awareness is increasing in Japan on issues such as public library services and archive maintenance, with laws being considered that mirror those pertaining to "fair use" in the United States.

He noted that Dr. Nagao head of the NDL is strongly supporting the expansion of the Web Archiving Project (WARP) in a phased approach that focuses initially on government and public sites.

It was noted that changes are expected in the National Diet Library law. It was also mentioned that NDL is joining the World Digital Library project.

Discussion of the Image Use Conference was reserved for a later discussion.

Working Lunch (12:00 to 1:00)

Allen Riedy, Head of UHM Library Asia Collection, welcomed the Council members. In his remarks, he challenged the NCC to encourage institutions to collect materials on Japan in languages other than Japanese and English. He expressed the need for more materials about Japan in Chinese, Korean, Thai and other Asian languages. He asked the NCC to review and make recommendations to support these important materials. It was noted that NCC's Multi-Volume Sets Project (MVS) has indeed funded some materials on Japan in other languages.

Afternoon Session (1:00 to 4:30)

The Image Use Protocol Taskforce began the afternoon session with Izumi Koide's report on the Image Use Protocol (IUP) Conference held in Tokyo in June 2008. Several committee members had attended the conference and noted that gathering all the stakeholders from Japan and the US in the same room to discuss issues face to face for the first time have proven a most important step. The conference has cleared misconceptions and clarified the issues among Japanese image holders. A lengthy discussion followed on points discussed at the Conference; the NCC is following-up with publishers and museums, to ensure that new image use guidelines are made available. The Council agreed that significant progress is being made. Articles about the conference can be found on the NCC Website in PDF format. See further discussion below.

ILL/DD Committee: Discussion then moved to the ILL/DD Committee Report by Chiaki Sakai. ILL problems encountered by small institutions (especially those without Japanese language speaking library staff) were briefly discussed, and Chiaki solicited ideas for better venues for disseminating GIF information and reaching out to small institutions than the Association of American Libraries (ALA) poster session. Solutions such as information cards and faculty listservs such as H-Japan were suggested as more effective venues.

The Multi-Volume Sets Program The 2007-08 Multi-Volume Sets (MVS) Committee report was given by Eiichi Ito and focused on two Committee recommendations to the NCC. That the Council reverse it ban on applications from the home institutions of MVS Committee Members; instead it was voted that members from applicant institutions must recuse themselves from MVS deliberations and decision-making when applications from their institutions are being discussed.

The Council also endorsed the MVS Committee's recommendation to clarify wording on the forms of media acceptable to MVS applications. The committee will make revisions to the 2008-09 Guidelines that will be published on the NCC Website and in the Fall AAS Newsletter. A display ad for the 2008-09 MVS competition is also planned for the AAS Newsletter.

The Librarians Professional Development Committee reports were given by new committee co-chair Hitoshi Kamada based on several written reports submitted by co-chair Sachie Noguchi. These included reports on the 2008 Tenri Workshop and the June 24th meeting at NDL to discuss librarian-training issues.

The Digital Resources Committee report was given by Keiko Yokota-Carter and generated questions about the NCC's role in sharing information found in commercial databases. The question was raised as to how the NCC might more effectively reach out to small institutions that might more effectively use scarce financial resources by subscribing to databases rather than through the purchase of standard print reference materials. Members of the Council agreed that a specific format is desirable for information distribution; an information card was given as an example. Also disseminating via faculty listservs to reach small institutions to help them more effectively make their librarians aware of new resources and of NCC services. The AsiaNetwork list and newsletter were suggested as good venues for dissemination. Faculty in small institutions need to be more proactive in getting their librarians' attention and a simple card with details on NCC projects such as the DRC, GIF, IUP, and MVS would be useful.

Several written Japan Art Catalog Project reports were submitted for the Council's discussion. It was mentioned that a significant amount of money was raised by the National Art Center, Tokyo to pay the shipping costs for art catalogs to the United States.

Information Literacy Portal Project: Maureen Donovan discussed planned changes to the IL Portal and conducted a brief workshop with handouts to help members focus on what changes they might like to see made to the portal and how it might be made more user-friendly for faculty and students. The portal was originally designed for librarians to use in developing new information literary workshops and courses. Some members felt that in its current form the portal website is confusing to non-librarian users. Several recommendations for potential improvements were submitted to Maureen for the task force's consideration.

Attention was then directed to the E-Resources Workshops press release. Three workshops have thus far been funded for 2008-09, a series of Workshops on Digital Resources for the study of Japanese Law given by Robert Britt at UCLA, UCSD, and a third in Northern California yet to be determined; a pair of workshops in Central Pennsylvania on Japanese and Chinese digital resources for faculty and librarians at small colleges; and a faculty workshop at Northwestern for faculty in the Chicago area. In addition the NCC has applied to do a workshop at the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) in March 2009 and it is also planned that workshops on IUP may be offered in the future.

Administrative Updates: The new NCC Japanese language brochure was discussed and suggestions were solicited for future updates and expansions. The Committee's ongoing wish to develop Japanese language summaries of the NCC website was mentioned and it was announced that Asako Shiba has agreed to help with the project.

Plans for the next issue of the NCC Newsletter to be published before the 2009 AAS were discussed and topics for articles and short reports were sought.

The 2007-08 summary budget was discussed, as was the IUP Conference. It was noted that the JUSFC application has been submitted with the same dollar amount being sought as in previous years; a request has also been made to the JUSFC that they bring the MVS grant total back to its traditional level of ten million yen per year.

Discussion followed regarding budget constraints and possible solutions were suggested such as setting aside a portion of the budget to cover contingencies and utilizing more volunteer labor/contributions in kind.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Morning Session (9:00 to 1:00)

Tokiko Bazzell distributed the article reporting on the IUP June Conference by Lynne Riggs, Managing Editor of Monumenta Nipponica, which appears in the upcoming issue of the SWET Newsletter (Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators). The SWET article had just arrived by PDF. Council Members had also been sent PDFs of other Japanese language articles that have appeared on IUP including those in Shuppan News, and in two art museum publications, another article will appear in Toshokan Zasshi. All those articles will be posted in the IUP Website.

The upcoming Faculty Forum at Princeton in January 2009 was discussed; it was suggested that the NCC apply to NEAC for support in gathering faculty for the meeting. Graduate students were also considered as attendees, as were Japan Foundation grant recipients. The importance of keeping track of emerging areas of research and serving isolated scholars was discussed. Various panel topics for the Faculty Forum were discussed; one proposition included a panel focusing on support for teaching examining ways that faculty can better make use of librarians and new digital resources in their teaching. A question was raised on NCC's ultimate goals for the Faculty Forum. The project was initially conceived as a way to gather additional faculty input for planning the NCC's 2010 3-D (3rd Decade) Conference. A concern was then raised about how the Faculty Forum might conform to the new Japan Foundation IPS requirements for tangible results. Further discussion of the 2010 3-D Conference pointed out that incorporating recommendations from the Faculty Forum would be tangible results to report to the Japan Foundation.

It was reported that a task force to plan to 3-D Conference has been formed and will be co-chaired by Tokiko Bazzell and NCC's new Chair-Elect. Members of the Executive Committee are also on the task force as are Patricia Steinhoff (who was on the Year 2000 task force and who conducted the Japan Foundation's survey of the field); Kristina Troost (who is CEAL President and was NCC Chair when the Year 2000 Conference took place) and a number of faculty representatives are being sought. The Conference Schedule of the NCC's Year 2000 Conference was referred to; the development of various breakout sessions at the conference was lauded.

The Committee again discussed the importance of differentiating between the NCC and CEAL/CJM. A key difference is the central role of faculty participation in all programs of the NCC. To use the language of new Japan Foundation guidelines, a key factor in evaluating NCC programs is the tangible deliverables to faculty and students. A discussion ensued regarding the foundation of the NCC in 1991 and the clear emphasis then that faculty must always be involved in NCC planning. In future attempts to clarify any lingering confusion between NCC activities and CEAL, it was suggested that an emphasis on personal experiences vis-à-vis the NCC might be a good metric to illustrate differences between NCC and CEAL.

Tokiko Bazzell then proposed the format for the next open meeting (March 26, 2009) to be split between an IUP session and a session educating attendees about the NCC. Clarification was requested regarding the composition of the NCC and the important roles of faculty representatives; this question was answered by referring to current bylaws. A lengthy discussion followed regarding the history and origins of the NCC, as well as its continuing and evolving relationship with the Japan Foundation.

It was announced that the next NCC Council Meeting will follow the Faculty Forum at Princeton and will be held January 16 and 17 2009.

The Chair's and Executive Director's Reports from Japan were then discussed. Tokiko Bazzell led a discussion of the Japan Foundation's suggested strategy for the NCC of possibility raising funds from the Tanaka Ten institutions. Various strategies were discussed, with the Council emphasizing the difficulty of such an endeavor. The question was asked about the possibility of soliciting recipients of Title 6 grants. Title 6 institutions might be seen as a parallel to Tanaka Ten institutions (no doubt with considerable overlap). If NCC is developing a Tanaka Ten strategy that would necessarily focus on NCC's roles in providing outreach to the field, the Council wondered if NCC should consider developing fund raising strategies focused on Title 6 recipients as well.

Constructive discussions were followed regarding how the NCC and funding agencies can effectively meet the current challenges to strengthen the study of Japan in North America. Veronica Taylor pledged to relay Council discussions to the AAC and the Japan Foundation. It was communicated to the Council that both the AAC and Japan Foundation strongly desire to continue funding the NCC but that this must be done through the newly established framework. Vickey Bestor mentioned several productive talks she has had with potential donors while in Tokyo.

The Council reviewed its current meeting schedule and agreed that in cases where there are insufficient funding to hold two full Council meetings a year the number will be reduced to one yearly business meeting. If that strategy is pursued it must be balanced by an increase in the Executive Committee's decision-making authority. The motion to revise the bylaws accordingly was carried and a signed copy of the revised bylaws will be circulated at the next working meeting.

The question was raised whether, in light of the current lack of funds, a representative from the Library of Congress is a necessary component of the Council. The Council asserted that this was indeed the case and that the LC representative plays a critical informational and planning role on the NCC.

The possibility of web conferencing was discussed for Executive Committee meetings. If the Executive Committee is to take on additional roles it may be necessary to extend EC terms from two to three years; the proposal was deferred and will be taken up again at a later date if needed.

A vote for the next NCC Chair was conducted by ballot. KeikoYokota-Carter, Japanese Studies Librarian at the University of Washington was chosen to assume the position of Chair-Elect starting January 2009.

Tokiko Bazzell noted there is a need to elect a new librarian member of the Council to replace Keiko Yokota-Carter as Digital Resources Committee Chair when she assumes the position of Chair-elect. The Council agreed that a vote should be conducted online with nominations sought via listservs. The term of the new DRC chair will be January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2011. Calls for nominations will be issued via listservs such as Eastlib, Easianth, H-Japan, etc.