Beekman Parlor, New York Hilton Hotel
The session began with Ms. Kuniko Yamada-McVey (Harvard University), chair of the Committee on Japanese Materials, introducing the committee members: Keiko HIGUCHI (International House of Japan), Hitoshi KAMADA (University of Arizona), Alban M. KOJIMA (University of Pennsylvania), Toshie MARRA (University of California, Los Angeles), and Kenji NIKI (University of Michigan). The session consisted of four presentations: (1) The Japan Memory Project / The On-line Glossary of Japanese Historical Terms; (2) The Japanese History of Medicine Project at the National Library of Medicine; (3) The Digital Access to Library of Congress Rare Japanese Collection; and (4) The Selectivity: A User-Centric Content Management.
I. The Japan Memory Project / The On-line Glossary of Japanese Historical Terms
Professor Ishigami provided an overview of the Historiographical
Institute, emphasizing the Institute's history, its mission (research, publication,
development, and so on), its online database types, and its primary project
entitled "Japan Memory Project." Founded in 1801 by Hanawa Hokiichi as the
Institute for Japanese Studies, the Historiographical Institute gained its
recognition, in 1950, as an affiliate research institute of the University
of Tokyo. Since then the Institute has maintained its academic integrity
as the leading institution for research on primary resource collections
in the area of Japanese history. The core mission of the Institute is twofold:
(1) to investigate, examine, compile, publish, and preserve primary source
collections in Japanese history; and (2) to provide researchers and academicians
with easy access to historical documents that consist of chronologically
organized collections (such as Dai Nihon Shiryo and Dai Nihon Ishin Shiryo)
and diaries/archival collections (such as Dai Nihon Komonjo and Dai Nihon
Kokiroku). The Institute has digitized a large volume of research and bibliographic
information into 21 databases that are accessible through the Internet.
II. The Japanese History of Medicine Project at the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
The meterial types, the origin, the historical significance, and the acquisition
methods of these information media were thoroghly evaluated by Professor
Shizu Sakai, Professor Emerita at the Department of Medical History of Juntendo
University in Tokyo and Contributing Editor of Kokusho Somokuroku. The significance
of these information media was ascertained: to include a wide range of Japanese
knowledge about healing, health, and disease; to integrate Japanese traditions
with other Eastern and Western traditions; and to contain signed letters
of eminent physicians. Dr. Sakai categorized the volume of meterial, dating
from 1495 to 1945, into the following three types: 70% printed books, 25%
manuscripts, 5% miscellaneous (prints, photographs, ephemera, and scrolls).
The National Library of Medicine acquired some of these information media
in the 19th century, others in the 1930's from the French Bookstore of Peking,
and in the late 1940's from Charles Tuttle. So far 80 titles have been microfilmed,
and the rest remains to be processed. Mr. North gave an overview description
of the Japanese medical collection held at NLM, and then displayed and annotated
verbally 24 representative digitized images selected from the collection.
III. Digital Access to The Library of Congress Rare Japanese Collection
IV. Selectivity: A User-Centric Content Management
Professor Eiichi Ishigami, Dr. Haruko Wakabayashi, and Dr. Thomas Nelson
of the Historiographical Institute at the University of Tokyo gave a presentation
on the Japan Memory Project and the On-line Glossary of Japanese Historical
Terms.
Professor Ishigami highlighted the Institute's "Japan Memory Project." This
project began in the year 2000 with the distinct purpose to investigate the
structure of preserved historical/archival documents spanning from antiquity
to the Meiji Restoration period in order to make the information content viable
in today's information environment. This digitization promises to modify the
traditional methodology of the study of history: by analyzing the unsystematized
data elements in a vast number of premodern archival documents and then by
reconstructing the data elements taxonomically into events, personalities,
and so on. The Japan Memory Project will take a form of multi-modular network
database in which the text, image, and translation modules are integrated.
The aim is to make information content available not only to the Japanese-speaking
population, but also to non-Japanese speakers throughout the world. Dr. Haruko
Wakabayashi and Dr. Thomas Nelson provided a brief introduction to the translation
module of this network system. They presented a demo developed for this particular
CEAL/CJM session--one that contains English and French translations of Japanese
historical terms.
Mr. Michael North (Rare Book Ccataloguer at the National Library of Medicine
in Bethesda, Meryland) introduced the Japanese History of Medicine Project,
currently in progress at the National Library of Medicine. Aiming at the eventual
dissemination of the information in the United States and in Japan, this project
consists of online bibliographic control, preservation survey, and the microfilming
of the collected material. Founded in 1836 as the Library of the U.S. Army
Surgeon General (part of the National Institutes of Health), NLM's History
of Medicine Division has specialized in collecting medical monographs, manuscripts
and archival collections, prints, photographs, scrolls, and other miscellaneous
items produced prior to 1914.
Ms. Yoko Akiba (Japan Specialist, Asian Division, Library of Congress) and
Ms. Katherine Blood (Assistant Curator for fine prints, Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress) gave a presentation entitled, "Digital Access
to Library of Congress Rare Japanese Collection." Ms. Akiba provided a brief
summation of a new project (which is in its preliminary stage at present)
that the Asian Division of the Library of Congress would undertake in the
future. Following Ms. Akiba's report, Ms. Blood introduced a project currently
in progress at the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.
The aim is to digitize a number of rare materials (including wood block materials,
prints, and scrolls) from pre-Meiji and Meiji Japan. Ms. Blood then shared
with the audience some images from the 2001 Library of Congress Floating World
Exhibit. These images included Ukiyo-e prints, books, and drawings created
in the 17th to the 19th centuries and other works from the Library's collections
produced by both Western and Japanese artists in the 20th century. Ms. Blood
concluded the presentation by stating the purpose of the project--that the
Library's rare Japanese collection items would be cataloged on a continual
basis for online access and for future preservation.
While the previous three presentations focused descriptively on the introduction
of various digital resources, Mr. Alban M. Kojima (Japanese/Korean Studies
Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the CEAL/CJM)
offered a reading of his research paper on a conceptual framework for the
resource management type called "Selectivity." The paper developed the premise
that, no matter how good the resources might be, they would likely remain
static and meaningless unless they are brought into the arena of well-defined
and methodically sound resource management--one which would actualize their
functionality. Kojima first introduced the definition of the primary concept
"selectivity," then probed it further in light of: (1) content management,
(2) quality, (3) user satisfaction, and (4) resources. Kojima proceeded to
describe content management as a form of information management that emphasizes
the very content of the information resource itself, regardless of its medium
and format, with the ultimate goal of meeting the immediate needs of specific
users. Kojima identified a high level of real-time, quality-driven, user-librarian
interaction as the primary ingredient of the selectivity-based content management
in which media and formats were considered as user options. Kojima further
developed his analysis of the user-librarian interaction by deploying Thomas
Froehlich's concept of hermeneutics centered around the topical relevance
as the underlying linkage connecting the user, the librarian, and the information
content. Kojima concluded his presentation by remarking that, since users
are a group of individuals with uniquely identifiable needs in their pursuits
of knowledge, and since the academic community is an amalgamation of these
individuals with varying needs, research libraries are highly committed to
identifying each individual user's needs in order to provide the most effective
and appropriate means for that user to satisfy his/her aims.
The 2003 CJM annual session concluded at 12:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Alban M. Kojima April 17th, 2003