NCC 2008 Open Meeting Summary
Thursday, April 3, 2008, 1:00 to 4:00 pm
International Ballroom North
Hyatt Regency Hotel Atlanta

 

Agenda

Copies of the Reports made at the meeting on April 3, 2008 can be found by clicking the relevant links.

NCC Chair Tokiko Y. Bazzell welcomed participants and representatives of funding agencies and announced the recent elections Michael Bourdagh (University of Chicago) as NCC Humanities Faculty Member and Keiko Yokota-Carter (University of Washington) as Digital Resources Coordinator as well as the appointment of Eiichi Ito as interim Library of Congress Representative. She also thanked those who are rotating off the Council, Susan Matisoff (UC Berkeley), Tomoko Steen (Library of Congress), and Hwa-Wei Lee who is retiring as Chief of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress and thanked those who worked on the E-Resources Initiatives and Info Lit portal. Tokiko offered brief tributes to two recently departed colleagues Emily Werrell of Duke University who served as the lead instructor for the NCC's T-3 Workshops and Naomi Fukuda, 1907-2007, who was an early leader in the Japanese Library field. Yasuko Makino has coordinated a collection of essays about Ms. Fukuda that will appear in the June issue of JEAL.

"Get It Faster with GIF FAQs" was the first session of the meeting presented on behalf of the Global ILL Framework (GIF) and ILL/DD Committee by Chiaki Sakai, Committee Co-Chair.

As of March 1, 2008 the Global Framework (GIF) had 206 member institutions including 143 Japanese members of which 77 participate in both interlibrary loan and document delivery, and 63 North American institutions of which 35 engage in both ILL and DD.

She began her presentation with an update on GIF transaction data recently received from Prof. Tutiya of Chiba University and data analysis conducted by her with assistance from Hitoshi Kamada. The new analysis shows that the rate of successful GIF requests is much higher than originally thought. According to official fiscal year 2006 statistics, North American participants sent about 1,100 requests to Japan, but only more than one-third were confirmed. However new analysis reveals that number measures the quantity of total transactions not the rate of success. Often requesting institutions may list more than one potential supplier which holds the material they seek. If, for example, the first two libraries listed cannot fulfill the request but the third library does the transation is successful. Previous statistics would have counted these as three separate requests, two failed and one successful. Another possible source of errors may be found in the differing systems used by OCLC and NII in handling such strings of requests. In summary, 62.2% of requests were filled, better than official GIF statistics indicated and one of the principal reasons for problems was the incapability of the North American ILS's to handle Japanese data and the difficulty that is causing for Japanese members. The lack of holding information verification and confirmation processes is also resulting in redundant transactions. She then provided a few tips on how to improve the chances of successful requests via GIF:

She further suggested that librarians:

She also noted the presence of two systems to assist with searching WebCat and WebCat + using the programs developed at Arizona (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ncc/illdd/gifholdingscheckprogram.html) and Pittsburgh (http://www.pitt.edu/~vredcay/nacsis.html). And she also reminded users of other ILL/DD options via Waseda and Keio Universities, through NDL's Overseas Services, and by using the growing number of digital collections. There are further GIF User Guides on the Web and also the GIF Online Tutorial (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ncc/illdd/userguides.html). She concluded by reminding participants of the GIF Poster Session at the 2008 Japan Foundation Reception on Friday, April 4th at 7 pm in the Regency Five Ballroom.

"Current Status of Institutional Repositories in Japan:" was presented by Izumi Sugita, Library Liaison Team, Scholarly and Academic Information Division, Cyber Science Infrastructure Development Department, National Institute of Informatics (NII).

She began with the question: What is an Institutional Repository? An Institutional Repository (IR) is an electronic archiving systems for content produced by universities, etc. gathered and stored as digital data and made freely available to the public with two objectives: 1. To reform dissemination of information and 2. To enhance social value.

NII's IR pilot project began in 2005 with 19 universities and became a full-fledged project in 2006-07 With 76 universities as partners as of March 2008. There is an increasing number of IRs in Japan with a world total of over 1,000 IRs. Japan ranks 4th in number following the US, Germany, and the UK.

In Japan more than half of the items deposited are Departmental Bulletin papers (kiyo). NII has three IR-related activities: 1. Content construction, 2. Support for collaborations, 3. Development of JuNii+, the Japanese IR portal at http://juniiplus.csc.nii.ac.jp/.

The third session was the "DRC Open Session: Can we find lingua franca between libraries abroad and Japanese database providers?" with presentations from Asahi Newspaper, NetAdvance, Nihon Keizai Shinbun (Nikkei), and the National Institute of Informatics (NII), chaired by Tomoko Steen, Chair of the Digital Resources Committee (DRC). Vendors began by briefly presenting their systems.

Yoshiro Hirata presented on behalf of NII noting that its database of academic papers CiNii has 11,000,000 bibliographic entries. There is no charge to search, CiNii has full text for about 3 million academic papers, 40% of which have a charge and the other 60% are free. Citation information is available for about 1,200,000 papers. CiNii has an Open URL, collaborates with Google, and supports citation management tools including (Refworks, Endnote). There are also various ways to use the system. Light individual users can pay-per-view, heavier users can register for a year, or institutional subscription may be signed through Kinokuniya or JPT.

Akihiro Nishimura, from Nikkei America in New York presented on behalf of his firm. He provided a handout on Nikkei Telecom 21 site licenses via IP authentication, which have been available since December 2007 for a flat rate of $300 per month providing one terminal per campus.

Naoko Tsuchiya presented on behalf of Asahi focusing on the Digital News Archive, Kikuzo Visual 2 that includes materials from 1945 to the present. Images and text can be searched after 1984. The Archive now contains more than 5 million articles used by more than 700 universities in Japan. Contracts have been signed with Yale and Princeton, and one more is in the works. He closed by noting that 2009 will be Asahi's 130th anniversary. In honor of that anniversary access to materials from 1879 to the present will be made available in the next few years.

Masashi Tanaka presented on behalf of NetAdvance. They started sales promotion of JapanKnowledge about 5 years ago and now there are approximately 40 foreign subscribers. There are currently about 30 components to JapanKnowledge and by the end of 2010 they plan to increase that number to 100. A new version of JK will appear next spring. The new system will help access articles more easily with a search box that can be put on a library's homepage. The JK Select Series with more professional content - Jitsu, Nikkoku Online, Nihon Kindai bungakukan is about to be released (end of May), and Kokushi Daijiten online will be released in 2 years (2010).

QUESTIONS for Vendors:

Question about CiNii: The UC system subscribes to CiNii. How much usage does this database get? Potential users are nervous about pay per view. How much does it cost per institution?

Answer: UC began in April 2007. At that time they decided not to publicize pay per view so they could monitor how many people would really be interested in using it. No one asked. After one year of use, only 1 person requested an individual ID.

Question: Yasuko Makino asked a contract question. Princeton finalized its Asahi Shimbun contract, but the contract wording scared some librarians and the terms seemed overly "severe."

Asahi response: Asahi planned to start sending Asahi newspaper archives last March. As a newspaper company their policy is very strict. Since it is a new market for them and they didn't know what usage levels American university might have and they are still learning. Asahi encouraged participants to offer advise about developing a better contract for the foreign academic environment.

Question: Hiroyuki Good, from Pittsburgh posed a licensing question to CiNii. Pitt originally subscribed for 2 years. When NII closed its older version the library asked to review the license for the new version and asked that the license be discontinued. Among the problems the administration noted was the handling of violations of copyright law. In the US, usually the library is responsible but the license states that CiNii retains that responsibility. He asked NII to investigate whether there is there any space for negotiation on the license?

Question: Toshie Marra asked Nikkei about serving walk-in users?

Answer: Nikkei has decided to modify their contract to include walk-in patrons from this fall.

"E-Learning: National Diet Library's Training Programs for Librarians Through the Internet": Tadahiko Motoyoshi, Director, Library Support Division, Kansaikan of the National Diet Library spoke at the invitation of NCC's Librarian Professional Development Committee (LPDC)

The LPDC invited Mr. Motoyoshi from NDL's Kansaikan because he is in charge of e-learning which is a growing area of NDL programming. Facing the end of the JSIST program and the uncertainty about its future it is important for Japanese and East Asian studies librarians to learn more about online options for training.

Mr. Motoyoshi introduced Kansaikan's principal services: 1) As an access point for sharing NDL resources including providing copy service for NDL materials; 2) Providing support operations for other libraries including the compiling of a union catalog, creating a collaborative reference database, promoting the study of library and information science, and providing services to the handicapped; and 3) As a venue for training programs for librarians.

A growing aspect of NDL's services is in the area of librarian training both domestically and for those overseas (historically this has included the JSIST Program funded by the Japan Foundation which ended in 2007). The major current focus of NDL's training is in the area of e-learning. Their e-learning offerings have included basics of preservation/conservation; basics of digitization; various Japanese books; and a new course introducing science and technology information. These strategies save time and money and provide participants with anytime/anyplace studying opportunities. Program requirements include OS windows 2000 XP. Courses are three months long. As of 2008 courses will be publicized via the NDL website and NDL's magazine sent by mail. NDL plans to expand the number of participants in each course and to offer 5 or 6 courses each year. NDL plans to undertake the revision of older materials. Overseas students are welcome to take NDL training but will need Internet connection and a Japanese-language capable computer environment. NDL welcomes suggestions from users everywhere.

Image Use Protocol Task Force (IUP) Open Session: was presented by Reiko Yoshimura, IUP Co-Chair

The Image Use Protocol Task Force, or IUP Task Force was formed following the January 2007 NCC meeting. The mission is to contribute to smoothing the process for North American scholars seeking permissions for the use of Japanese images in teaching, research and scholarly publications.

The task force is co-chaired by Robin LeBlanc, Associate Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University and Reiko Yoshimura, Head Librarian, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution and includes 14 members representing publishers, museums, libraries and various academic disciplines; members come from both Japan and North America.

The task force's first meeting was held at Harvard University in August 2007 and formulated the following four goals.

  1. To conduct an online survey to document the problems encountered by individuals and to identify common problems.
  2. To develop a set of guidelines on how to obtain permission to use images from Japan. This also includes a sample letter requesting permission both in English and Japanese; and a list of useful contacts related to use of Japanese images.
  3. To clarify the differences in publishing environments of United States and Japan.
  4. To organize a joint meeting with Japanese image right holders to promote mutual understanding and to solicit their advice on how to improve the process of securing permission to use Japanese images.

The detailed IUP Goals in both Japanese and English are posted on the NCC website (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ncc/imageuse.html).

The IUP's e-mail survey was sent out this past winter to Japan-related list-servs in North America, Europe and Australia and received 120 detailed responses by the end of January 2008. The survey consisted of 12 questions of either multiple choice or narrative answers regarding how people are obtaining image use permission from Japan, the problems they encountered, and how they use the obtained images.

Over 85% of the respondents were Japan- or Asia-related scholars, teachers or graduate students from academic institutions, followed by a small number of librarians, independent scholars and museum professionals. Also, 90 respondents said their professional activities take place mainly in North America. 101 people answered that their native language is NOT Japanese, and out of the 101, 90 answered their native language is English.

To briefly summarize some of the survey's findings, it was learned that art objects were the most highly in demand followed by photographs of news events. Roughly 24% of respondents said they use or wish to use online visual or moving images. These numbers may be growing because online teaching is becoming increasingly common. This also alerts the task force that they need to look into the unique issues involving use of images in these formats.

The respondents reported a broad range of problems encountered in gaining permission to use images. One of the most frequently cited problems was difficulty in locating appropriate contacts and/or identifying the actual image rights holders. (Quote) "Obtaining the rights for a video/film of performance may involve not only the publisher but also the performers whose images are on the video." (Quote) "The hardest is finding the owner of images used in magazines. It is impossible to find the photographer who took a picture." Greater detail on the results of the survey and its analysis are found on the IUP Webpage.

The survey and the IUP's recommendations for user guidelines will be discussed at the IUP's conference in Tokyo on June 23, 2008. This conference will combine a public forum for discussing issues and a face-to-face meeting with stakeholders in Japan. The NCC has secured funding from the Toshiba International Foundation, Japan Foundation and Harvard University's Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies to support this conference which will bring a number of task force members, North American researchers, and a representative from an American academic publisher together with representatives of Japanese publishers, museums, temples, and other organizations to increase mutual understanding of copyright guidelines and permissions granting processes. The task force will solicit advice from Japan-side organizations and individuals in developing final guidelines for improving the permissions process.

Based on advice from the conference and information collecting over the past year, the task force will develop a set of guidelines to best practices for visual image access and use. This will include guidelines for locating and requesting images; bilingual permission request letter templates; photo subject release forms for subsequent publication; and lists of contacts and links to related sites and organizations related to image use. The task force hopes that individual who use the guidelines will find it easier to approach Japanese rights holders; and that Japanese rights holders will find permissions requests easier and less time consuming to process. The task force hopes to complete its mission by the end of 2008.

2007 Japan Studies Information Specialist Trainee (JSIST) Presentations: were made by 5 of the 2007 trainees:

"Japan's Newspaper Resources" Hiro Good of University of Pittsburgh shared his experience in offering an instructional class for colleagues following his return from JSIST. He focused his session on locating articles using CiNii, GIF, and Zasshi kiji sakuin, and finding newspaper articles using Nikkei Telecom 21 and Yomiuri CD-ROM. He trained 38 colleagues in his sessions, the PPT slides for which have been posted on the website.

"User Instruction" Chiaki Sakai of the University of Iowa discussed the use of Japanese statistics by undergraduates. Because many of the statistical resources include English even students with limited Japanese language ability can make productive use of such resources. She provided an overview on the techniques taught to JSIST trainees for both government and private statistical sets. Her presentation also included an introduction to websites and useful guides, which are contained in her online report.

"Digital/Online Resources in Japan" was jointly presented by Tomoko Bialock of USC, Shirin Eshghi of University of British Columbia & Ken'ichiro Shimada of the Gordon W. Prange Collection at the University of Maryland. Their presentations included further details on CiNii presented by Tomoko Bialock; an update on NDL's Web Archiving Project (WARP) presented by Ken-ichiro Shimada and pointers on NDL/CiNii by Shirin Eshghi.

"Understanding the Histories of Book Collections: Its Method, Significance, and Potential:" was presented by Atsuhiko Wada of Waseda University.

Mr. Wada is the author of "Shomotsu no Nichi-Bei kankei: The Japan-US Relationship Viewed from Book Circulation," for which he conducted research on the Japanese book collections in North America. He shared his observations from his project. In exchanging and distributing books between countries, people also exchanged information, which results in changes or reform in their knowledge, images, and interests in other countries. Also, political, economic, and ethnic factors influenced those changes and reforms. He was especially interested to have learned of the important roles played by non-governmental groups, community networks and connections of people in the US and Japan, which actively facilitated the exchange and distribution of books between the two counties.

Digitizing government archival records and P.M. Fukuda's initiatives to strengthen the role of the National Archives:" was given by Shohei Muta, Senior Researcher at the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), National Archives of Japan.

Mr. Muta discussed the recent impact of current Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on the growth of archives in Japan and progress toward the development of the digital archive system at JACAR. Mr. Fukuda has recognized the importance of preserving and managing public records and has taken the initiative to promote the digital archive system of the National Archives of Japan. Challenges to the growth of comprehensive archives include past scandals within the Japanese government, bad management of records, the lack of a modern central national archives until the establishment of National Archives in 1971, and no specific law enforcing the archiving of documents. The Japanese Freedom of Information Act, which governs records management of documents held by the government intends that government documents and records be preserved at the National Archives and be made available for public use. However, Article 16 of that law also prevents access to information if government documents and records are not fit for public use, for the protection of privacy, or for other rational reasons. Japanese records preservation started back in the ancient times, and although there were no central depositories, records were relatively well managed and preserved with the exception of major incidents that caused record destruction such as the end of World War II and the Kanto Earthquake of 1923. However, in general important records have been transferred to safe places to be protected. Mr. Muta also noted positive trends in the way Japan is changing its attitudes toward archives, opening access, and further regulating the management of records.

On behalf of the NCC, Tokiko Bazzell thanked the Japan-US Friendship Commission and the Japan Foundation for support of the meeting.

The NCC thanks Michiko Ito, Beth Katzoff, and Yoko Okunishi for taking the notes upon which this report is based.