Council on East Asian Libraries. Committee on Japanese Materials.
Annual Meeting (2001 : Chicago, Ill.). Notes

Wednesday, 21 March 2001, 19:10-21:00, CST, Parlor C, Sheraton Chicago

 

 

 

0.            Introduction

 

       The 2001 annual meeting of the Council on East Asian Libraries' (CEAL) Committee on Japanese Materials (CJM) was called to order at 19:00, CST at Parlor C in Sheraton Chicago.  The participants were welcomed to the meeting; and the names of the current CJM members were reiterated.

 

 

1.            Japanese Company Histories

 

       The first presentation was "Japanese Company Histories:  Their Characteristics and Cultural Value" by Ms. Katsuko Murahashi of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations.  The following hand-outs were distributed:  presentation outline, with reference titles; "Shashi o tasū shozōsuru toshokan"; and "Shashi no shinazoroe no ōi omo na koshoten."

 

       While company histories are published in the United States, Germany, and other countries, there are some peculiar characteristics of company histories commonly compiled in Japan:  compilation/publication of such Japanese company histories by each company itself; intended objectives being for training of employees, public relations, record-keeping, etc.; authors being company employees, scholars, journalists, novelists, etc.; and histories being published of various companies of a variety of industries irrespective of financial situations of each.

 

       While a company history is commonly understood to be a book compiled by a business enterprise on its history, there is no universal definition of a company history.  The primary purpose of compiling Japanese company history has shifted from production of an anniversary memento to education of managers as well as employees and public relations.

 

       Published privately and distributed as gifts, Japanese company histories fall under the category of "gray literature."  As such, there is no accurate counting of company histories; however, from various reliable sources, it is estimated that a total of much more than 10,000 titles of Japanese company histories have ever been published by approximately 6,000 companies, with an annual average of approximately 300 titles.

 

       Different from other sources of company information, such as business reports, securities exchange reports, and corporate profiles, company histories:  contain comprehensive and durable information; describe business culture; are often re-written as circumstances change; and have recently been witnessing a trend of multiple versions published simultaneously, such as an orthodox version, popular version, pictorial version, cartoon version, motion picture version, English-language version, and computer file version.

 

       Japanese company publications are of use to libraries, because they provide patrons with:  information on corporate strategy; reproduction of primary materials; time-series data; narratives of significant events; information on industries, economic conditions, and technological development; and information on culture or manners and customs.

 

       Useful sources of bibliographic information on Japanese company history publications include:  Kaishashi sōgō mokuroku, Zōho kaiteiban, Tokyo : Nihon Keieishi Kenkyūjo, 1996; Kaishashi, keizai dantaishi sōgō mokuroku. Tsuiroku, semiannual, 1977- ; and OPACs of Kanagawa Prefectural Library in Kawasaki and Ryukoku University, among other libraries listed in hand-out "Shashi o tasū shozōsuru toshokan."

 

       A copy of Japanese company history may be obtained either directly or indirectly from each company in question.  For direct request, correspondence should be sent to a public relations or another department in charge of the history publication.  A company history is usually distributed free of charge; however, more than Japanese Yen 30,000 may be assessed in some cases for direct acquisition from the companies concerned.  Japanese company history publications may also be purchased through second-hand bookstores (cf. hand-out "Shashi no shinazoroe no ōi omo na koshoten"), which usually mail out sales catalogs to registered customers and provide Internet access to their web sites.  A price of a Japanese company history procured through a second-hand bookstore normally ranges between Japanese Yen 3,000 and 5,000, although one title cost at one time as much as Japanese Yen 450,000.

 

       Ms. Murahashi plans to develop a company history database for facilitating keyword access.

 

 

2.          Development of Electronic Library Projects of Japan National Diet Library

 

       The second presentation was "Development of the Electronic Library Projects of the National Diet Library" by Ms. Machiko Nakai of Japan National Diet Library.

 

       Since the 1980s, Japan National Diet Library (NDL) has been working on the Kansaikan Project vigorously espoused with promotion of electronic library services.  In 1994, NDL participated in the "Pilot Electronic Library Project."  The NDL Electronic Library Concept was prepared in 1998.

 

       Since March 2000, three major components of NDL's Electronic Library have been made accessible to the general public at the NDL web site (http://www.ndl.go.jp/e/index.html):  full-text database system for the minutes of the Japanese Diet; Web-OPAC; and rare books image database.  The Diet session minutes full-text database provides users with search functionality by session number, legislator name, and keyword for presentation of relevant parts of session minutes from both chambers of the Japanese bicameral system.  Complete retrospective data starting with the 1947 first session, which are already entered in the system, will be placed in a production mode in 2001.  Web-OPAC contains approximately 2.2 million bibliographic records of Japanese as well as non-Japanese imprints acquired by NDL with search functionality also through romanized Japanese query values.  The rare books image database registers 20,000 images of 460 titles from NDL's collection of Japanese books and colored woodblock prints, searched by author and keyword with result presentation in both thumbnail and enlarged versions of the digitized images.

 

       NDL has also been holding rather popular Electronic Exhibition in collaboration with other organizations.  As a part of the Bibliotheca Universalis Project, NDL released in August 2000 "Nippon in the World" (http://nippon.ndl.go.jp/e/default.html) currently consisting of three parts:  scenic mementoes of Japan; Vienna International Exposition; and modern Japanese political history materials.  More material will be added in the future.

 

       NDL secured for FY 2000/2001 budgetary allocation from the national government for digitization over a three-year period of 168,000 books, to total to 17 million images, published during the Meiji period.  Pre-existing microfilms of these Meiji publications are scanned to form bit-map image data; and corresponding MARC bibliographic records are extracted from the NDL system.  In addition, in this Meiji imprint digitization project, tables of contents are incorporated in a searchable text format.  A hindrance is the current Japanese Copyright Law, abiding by which NDL contracted out in December 2000 a task of copyright status verification of approximately 100,000 books.  Yet, it is NDL's plan to make some of the digitized Meiji imprints available to the general public in the fall of 2002.

 

       A partial amendment to the National Diet Library Law was issued in April 2000, through which such off-line publications as CD-ROMs were added, in October 2000, to the Japanese legal depository system.  Furthermore, NDL plans to selectively collect on-line publications and to preserve them for permanent access.  In the meanwhile, in October 2000, NDL started development of a Dublin Core-based metadata-compatible system to refer users to external Internet sources for on-line publications deselected at NDL itself.

 

       While year 2002 will bring an unprecedented change to NDL, through which the electronic library will be required to function as a cornerstone of new services within the new tripartite system of the Headquarters, Kansaikan, and the International Library of Children's Literature, it is recognized that the electronic library concept is diverse that calls for cooperation among various libraries, each of which will maintain its uniqueness.

 

 

3.          Cataloging of Japanese Web Resources

 

       The third presentation was "Cataloging Japanese Web Resources:  First Year Reflections" by Prof. Maureen Donovan of the Ohio State University.  A print hand-out from her PowerPoint presentation file was distributed.

 

       Digital Asia Library (DAL) (http://digitalasia.library.wisc.edu/) is a project of three participant libraries with financial assistance through the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI, Section 606 (improving foreign information access) grant:  the University of Wisconsin--Madison assuming the project management responsibility as well as contributing in the areas of Chinese, Korean, and Southeast Asian studies; the Ohio State University contributing in the area of Japanese studies; and the University of Minnesota contributing in the area of South Asian studies.  DAL was established to improve user's access to high quality Asian studies Internet resources by creating a catalog of such materials evaluated and selected by area specialists and cataloged by professional librarians.

 

       DAL's catalog records are contributed to CORC, which are incorporated into WorldCat as well as downloaded to library's OPAC; and the catalog builds relationships among print as well as electronic documents, people, subjects, and so on.

 

       The scope of DAL is Internet resources:  relevant to the study of modern East, South, and Southeast Asian societies by researchers, students, and practitioners in the social sciences; from academic, government, commercial, trade as well as industry, and non-profit as well as private sector sources; at a level suitable for higher education; available free of charge; and written in the English and/or Asian languages.

 

       DAL currently has the following topical foci:  news sources; gender studies; demography and population studies; banking, finance, and the economy in general; environmental studies; agriculture and rural development; labor, industry, business, and trade; politics and government; education; religion and society; transportation and communication; science and technology in society; anthropology; sociology; and history.  A topic has also been set for each month:  women (June); government agencies (July); environment (August); political parties (September); newspapers (October); health/AIDS (November); agencies of scholarship (December); human rights (January); and disasters (February).

 

       In order to carry out selection of Japanese studies Internet resources for DAL, the following tools are used:  Gensen Nihon no hōmupēji 10-man (ISBN 4756136575; OCLC #45272783); hyperlinks embedded at major web sites; newspapers; mailing lists; reference books; Google; and Yahoo.  The basic selection criterion is the same as that applied to print material acquisition decisions.

 

       Cataloging, with a production goal of 100 bibliographic records per month, is facilitated by two student assistants who locate bibliographic records for books appearing similar in content to each Japanese studies Internet resource so that the same subject headings may be applied, as much as feasible, to the newly-created record for the Internet resource in question.  It is noted that the review process of those bibliographic records prepared by student assistants is rather time-consuming to result in a considerable number of un-reviewed records being added to CORC awaiting future review and updating.  Approximately 600 Japanese web sites are currently represented by CORC bibliographic records.  Although the Dublin Core (DC) standard appears less intimidating at the first glance, the MARC 21 convention is more flexible and presents fewer problems in the long run.  Thus, DAL has been finding itself in increasing use of MARC 21 than DC metadata tags to take full advantage of guidelines found in Nancy Olson's Cataloging Internet resources : a manual and practical guide, 2nd ed. (http://www.purl.org/oclc/cataloging-internet).  Other relevant cataloging issues worth mentioning include:  training of cataloging personnel; inclusion of subject headings and classification numbers in the bibliographic records; and tagging as well as linguistic styles of summary/contents entries.

 

       Some special challenges of DAL are:  the 6 January 2001 reorganization of the Japanese central government; absence of CJK vernacular support in CORC; CORC system irregularities; and difficulties associated with storing relevant data on spreadsheets.

 

 

4.          Japan Foundation-National Diet Library Librarians' Training Program (5th : 2001 : Tokyo, Japan, etc.)

 

       The fourth presentation was a report from the 5th Japan Foundation-National Diet Library Librarians' Training Program held in January-February 2001 in Japan.  The report was a result of collaborative efforts among all three participants in the Program from North America:  Ms. Ellen Hammond of the University of Iowa; Mr. Jack Howard of Royal Ontario Museum; and Ms. Naomi Kotake of Stanford University.  Ms. Hammond acted as a coordinator of the report.  The following two hand-outs (printed and stapled together) were distributed:  "Useful URLs from Japan"; and "The National Diet Library's New OPAC."

 

       Selected news from NDL include:  future inclusion of Zassaku in NDL's new OPAC (the approximate number of records mentioned in the English translation part of the hand-out "The National Diet Library's New OPAC" should read "3,500,000" instead of "350,000") for free access; fulfillment of future photocopy requests of actual articles at Kansaikan; digitization of approximately 40,000 volumes of Tokugawa period titles; compilation of a union list of newspapers with 18,000 bibliographic entries and holdings reports from 1,300 institutions; and discontinuation of Zenkoku shoshi print publication as of the end of March 2002.  A list of reference sources for Japanese studies was distributed to Program participants in Tokyo, which will be published in issue no. 55 of Sankō shoshi kenkyū under article title:  "Nihon o shiraberu tame no Nihon no sankō tosho."  Bibliographic records for Meiji period imprints were transmitted from WINE to OCLC but are not yet loaded in WorldCat.

 

       The domain names for NACSIS services are to change in March 2001, although the service names will retain "NACSIS" for the time being.  The homepage of the National Institute of Informatics (NII) is found at ULR:  http://www.nii.ac.jp/ .  NACSIS-IR provides overseas users with access to forty-four databases and employs a multi-file retrieval method.  NACSIS-DiRR is a directory of researchers in Japan made available free of charge, although entries are not as up-to-date as those in the file consulted through the fee-based NACSIS-IR service.  NACSIS-ELS is an integrated system of bibliographic data and corresponding full-text articles, access to which is through subscription only.  NII is considering a fixed-fee subscription offering to this NACSIS-ELS service.  NACSIS-CIS is a citation index similar to ISI products.  Links to various Japanese academic societies are found at the Academic Society Home Village.

 

 

5.          Japanese Studies Reference Queries

 

       The fifth presentation was "Japanese Studies Reference Queries" by Ms. Kuniko Yamada McVey, a CJM member, of Harvard University.  Six sets of actual reference queries received and a solution to each were shared with the session audience, as a part of CJM's on-going efforts in providing learning opportunities to junior Japanese studies librarians new to the profession.

 

       Bibliographic data as to the first Japanese translation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights were sought by a patron.  Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa hon'yaku mokuroku listed a 1932 translation published by Shun'yōdō.

 

       Information with regard to "teruteru bōzu" was requested by a patron.  Both Nihon minzoku daijiten and Shogakkan's Nihon kokugo daijiten registered the entry.  There were three citation hits for "teruteru bōzu" in Nichigai's Magazine plus.

 

       Biographical data on Hideo Hagiwara were needed by a patron.  His entry was found in:  Chosakuken daichō; Jinji kōshinroku; and Nihon shinshiroku.

 

       The address as well as the phone number of Manpukuji Temple in Uji City was sought by a patron.  Zenkoku jiin taikan provided the information.

 

       A comparison of old and new Japanese electoral areas was needed by a patron.  Seiji handobukku furnished the data.

 

       Influence of Dadaism on Japanese literature was a reference query posed by a patron.  The relevant entry in Nihon kindai bungaku daijiten was presented to the patron.

 

 

6.          Japanese Rare Book Cataloging Guidelines and Bibliographic Data Romanization

 

       The sixth presentation was a report of two of the CJM activities by Ms. Toshie Marra, a CJM member, of the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

       The Library of Congress completed, as of 1 March 2001, cataloging of over 1,300 Japanese rare books, with an expected conclusion in 2004 of all 3,800 titles to be entered in RLIN.  All relevant bibliographic records may be retrieved through corporate body search for "Japanese Rare Book Collection (Library of Congress)."

 

       Following LC's original plan not to compile themselves formal guidelines for cataloging of Japanese old and rare books, the Subcommittee on Japanese Rare Book Cataloging Guidelines was formed within CJM, with members:  Ms. Toshie Marra, UCLA; Ms. Reiko Yoshimura, Freer Gallery of Art (Smithsonian Institution); and Hideyuki Morimoto, UCB.  However, LC changed its position in summer 2000, through which the Subcommittee revised its charge and has been compiling a list of questions and comments related to cataloging of Japanese old and rare books for submission to LC as a reference that they may take into consideration during development of their guidelines now scheduled for release in spring 2002.  The Subcommittee strongly urges relevant institutions to pass to the Subcommittee any question and comment along this line.

 

       The Subcommittee has also conducted a survey on access to Japanese old and rare materials held at academic libraries and museums in North America.  As of 16 March 2001, thirty-six institutions responded to the survey; and other affected institutions are kindly requested to participate in the survey, the questionnaire for which may be obtained from Ms. Marra (tmarra@library.ucla.edu), so that CEAL members may have a clearer picture of holdings, access, and cataloging of Japanese old and rare materials in North America.

 

       In recognition of inadequacy of Nihon mokuroku kisoku for cataloging of Chinese and Japanese old books, Subcommittee "Koseki no Toriatsukai ni Kansuru Shōiinkai" was established toward the end of 2000 within NII's Union Catalog Committee, with the view to preparing by early 2001 manuals for bibliographic record entry in NACSIS-CAT for such early Chinese and Japanese titles.

 

       Such U.K. institutions as BL and Cambridge as well as Oxford Universities are considering contribution to NACSIS-CAT of their early Japanese title records.  The quasi-comprehensive Union Catalogue in Europe initiated by Dr. Kornicki currently registers 40,000 Japanese titles produced before 1870 held by European universities, libraries, museums, and private collections and will shortly be made available on the Internet at no cost.

 

       NDL has independently been engaged in its project of providing access to their holdings of 43,000 Japanese old titles via their Web-OPAC, approximately 4,500 records of which will be made accessible through Web-OPAC by 2002.

 

       CEAL members are encouraged to share with Ms. Marra (tmarra@library.ucla.edu) examples of complicated Japanese romanization situations and inconsistent romanization treatment seen in national bibliographic utilities.

 

       CEAL members may also wish to be reminded that new LC subject headings and LC classification numbers for Japanese kanbun literature were established in 2000, which should now be used in newly-contributed bibliographic records.

 

 

7.          Japanese Art on the World Wide Web

 

       The seventh presentation was "Japanese Art on the World Wide Web" by Dr. Frank L. Chance, a CJM member, of Princeton University.  The order of this presentation was somewhat shifted due to delay of his flight.  Hand-out "Japanese Art on the World Wide Web" was distributed.  Highly selected web sites on Japanese art history and archaeology were discussed.

 

       The following Western-language sites serve as an introduction to the subject:  Bibliography of Western-Language Work on East Asian Archaeology (http://www.eastasianarchaeology.org/bibintro.htm); and Chinese and Japanese Art History WWW Virtual Library (http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/html/chinese/index.html).

 

       Some Japanese jump and overview sites include:  Bijutsu Kanren Kensaku (http://www.venus.dti.ne.jp/~orthias/artindex.htm); JIN Virtual Museum of Traditional Japanese Art (http://jin.jcic.or.jp/museum/index.html); and Image Database of the Kano Collection (http://www.library.tohoku.ac.jp/collect/collect.html), which presents maps, military history, and hand scrolls from Kano family.

 

       Each of the three main Japanese national museums has its own web site:  Tokyo National Museum (http://www.tnm.go.jp/); Kyoto National Museum (http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/); and Nara National Museum (http://www.narahaku.go.jp/).  Other national museum web sites in Japan include:  National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (http://www.momat.go.jp/); National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (http://www.momak.go.jp/); National Historical Museum (http://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/); National Museum of Ethnography (http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/); and National Museum of Western Art (http://www.nmwa.go.jp/).

 

       Also, some documents on the Fujimura archaeological scandal are of use:  an article printed in Mainichi shinbun (http://www.mainichi.co.jp/news/selection/archive/200011/05/1105m154-400.html); "Japanese scandals : this time, it's archaeology : a report" by Charles T. Keally (http://www.EastAsianArchaeology.org/special/japanarchscandal.htm); and "Digging out of the scandal" by Peter Bleed (http://www.EastAsianArchaeology.org/special/japanarchscandal2.htm).

 

 

8.          General Report, etc.

 

       Due to time shortage at the meeting, the "General Report, etc." segment of the CJM annual session program was skipped.

 

 

9.          Questions/Answers and Discussion

 

       Prof. Atsushi Aiba of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies distributed hand-out "Call for Proposals for Nichibunken Databases," introducing the Center and its existing databases (http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/datae.htm) as well as announcing that the Center was prepared to create more databases relevant to Japanese studies research.

 

       The CJM annual session concluded with some questions and answers related to presentations at 21:00, CST.

 

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Hideyuki Morimoto

27 April 2001