22 January 2002

Hideyuki Morimoto

 

 

0.          Introduction

 

      Following the recent pattern, this present annual report of the CEAL Committee on Japanese Materials (CJM) covers entire calendar year 2001, i.e., from January 2001 to December 2001.

 

      In its third year of the Committee cycle, CJM has made steady progress in several areas.  This present CJM annual report from 2001 is organized around the following topics:  (1) Committee membership; (2) Committee annual sessions; (3) Committee workshop; (4) Committee activities; (5) functions within CEAL; and (6) collaboration with relevant external individuals and organizations.

 

 

1.          Committee Membership

 

      The CJM membership structure remained intact during entire calendar year 2001, the period covered by this present annual report, as was initially approved for cycle 1999‑2002 by the CEAL Executive Committee in summer 1999, although, in the middle of the calendar year, two members experienced institutional affiliation change.

 

Frank L. Chance, Princeton University, subsequently University of Michigan;

Scott Edward Harrison, University of Washington;

Toshie Marra, University of California, Los Angeles;

William B. McCloy (Ex Officio), University of Washington;

Kuniko Yamada McVey, Harvard University;

Hideyuki Morimoto (Chair), University of California, Berkeley, subsequently New York University; and

Yuki Nagano, International Christian University (Japan).

 

 

2.          Committee Annual Sessions

 

      The 2001 CJM annual session was held on 21 March 2001 in Chicago.　　Ms. Katsuko Murahashi of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations made a presentation entitled "Japanese Company Histories:  Their Characteristics and Cultural Value"; Ms. Machiko Nakai of Japan National Diet Library delivered a presentation entitled "Development of the Electronic Library Projects of the National Diet Library"; Prof. Maureen Donovan of the Ohio State University made a presentation entitled "Cataloging Japanese Web Resources:  First Year Reflections"; and Ms. Ellen Hammond of the University of Iowa, Mr. Jack Howard of Royal Ontario Museum, and Ms. Naomi Kotake of Stanford University presented a report of "Japan Foundation-National Diet Library Librarians' Training Program (5th : 2001 : Tokyo, Japan, etc.)."   Those were followed by Committee member reports/short presentations:  Japanese Studies Reference Queries by Ms. Kuniko Yamada McVey; Committee Activities Report by Ms. Toshie Marra; and Japanese Art on the World Wide Web by Dr. Frank L. Chance.  A detailed written report of the 2001 CJM annual session was prepared by Hideyuki Morimoto and appeared in JEAL, no. 124 (June 2001), which is also found at the CJM Web site for cycle 1999‑2002:  http://home.talkcity.com/NonProfitBlvd/hideyuki_morimoto/home.htm.

 

      As somewhat anticipated in March 2000 when the CEAL directive was revised regarding the annual session agenda finalization well ahead of the annual session, this revised requirement was again found to be unrealistic especially in view of the well-known difficulty associated with advance travel arrangements for potential and relevant session speakers to be invited from Japan, which has a fiscal as well as academic year cycle starting in April and ending in March, for the CEAL annual meeting time of spring.  Some of such possibilities could not know their end-of-the-fiscal-year schedule until well into the preceding winter.  Thus, CJM strongly reiterated its position to CEAL that the newly-introduced and then revised regulation requiring each CEAL committee to finalize its annual session schedule well in advance should immediately be rescinded.  CEAL, at its March 2001 Executive Board meeting, finally decided that this requirement that had adverse effect on CJM's scheduling for its 2000 and 2001 annual sessions should be abolished effective immediately.

 

      CJM encountered some difficulties in 2002 CJM annual session scheduling due to sudden cancellation of participations from Japan.  The session plan as it stood as of December 2001 was:

 

Ms. Kuniko Yamada McVey:  Petzold Collection Digitization Project Progress Report

Mr. Rob Britt:  International Conference on the Enhancement of Information Availability for Scholarly Resources in Japanese Studies:  Responding to the Maturation and Globalization of Japanese Studies (2001 : Tokyo, Japan, etc.)

Committee Member Reports/Short Presentations

 

Japan National Diet Library indicated that it will not be possible for NDL to send any official to the 2002 CJM session but that it would consider whether or not it will be feasible to have one of their staff members working in the U.S. participate in the session as their representative to make a presentation on advanced Zassaku search techniques at the NDL site and/or NDL Kansaikan.

 

 

3.          Committee Workshop

 

      After twists and turns, LC finally agreed to help CEAL arrange a rare book cataloging workshop.  Especially for the Japanese rare book cataloging questions and answers session to be held in the morning of Monday, 1 April 2002, at LC, Mr. Tsuchitani and Ms. Fujishiro will be providing participants in the session with guidance.  Toshie Marra collected questions from among Japanese studies librarians and museum curators, related with Japanese rare book cataloging and consolidated them for submission to Mr. Tsuchitani.

 

      Information with regard to the 2002 workshop has been placed and updated on the CJM web site found at URL:

 

      http://home.talkcity.com/NonProfitBlvd/hideyuki_morimoto/home.htm

 

under the rubric:  Committee Workshop--2002.

 

 

4.          Committee Activities

 

      Major CJM activities for the period between January and March 2001 were planning and implementation of the CJM annual session held in March 2001.  Accordingly, the CJM Web site was maintained with file updates and additions.

 

      In addition, CJM continued to work on the following committee activities with a specific focal point assigned to each initially set up for the current CJM cycle.

 

(1) Planning/preparation for CJM sessions at 2000/2001/2002 Annual Meetings (focal point: Hideyuki Morimoto);

(2) Establishment/maintenance of a Web site for the Committee, 1999-2002 (focal point: Hideyuki Morimoto);

(3) Study and dissemination of findings on handling of Japanese rare books (focal point: Toshie Marra);

(4) Planning for digital Japanese studies resource development (focal point: Kuniko Yamada McVey);

(5) Promotion of cooperation with Japan National Diet Library (focal point: Kuniko Yamada McVey);

(6) Study and dissemination of findings on bibliographic data romanization for complicated situations, including Japanese-language titles published outside Japan but within the Chinese-script civilization region (such as those published by Wai wen chu ban she in Beijing and Oegungmun Ch'ulp'ansa in P'yongyang), Chinese-language (as opposed to "kanbun") titles published inside Japan (such as those issued by Riben guo ji jiao liu ji jin, aka Japan Foundation), or Chinese classics in the original language published by the Government-General of Chosen and acquired in North America through Japanese acquisition sources (focal point: Toshie Marra); and

(7) Monitoring of new appointments to Japanese studies librarian positions within North America; and sending welcoming messages to those new to this field or felicitation messages to those moving from one position to another within the field (focal point: Hideyuki Morimoto)

 

      Items (1), (2), and (7) are obviously ongoing.  Pertaining to item (3), the Subcommittee on Japanese Rare Book Cataloging Guidelines (members: Toshie Marra, Reiko Yoshimura, and Hideyuki Morimoto) completed compilation of a document entitled "Questions and Comments Related to Japanese Rare Book Cataloging Guidelines" and submitted it to LC in August 2001, with the hope that the document would assist in LC's project of compiling the formal guidelines in English for cataloging Japanese old books.  In the course of compilation of the list, the Subcommittee solicited input from other Japanese catalogers; and Ms. Yasuko Makino graciously reviewed the list before its finalization.  Beside these, tangible and positive results were already generated with activity (5).  CEAL members reiterated confusion with regard to proper romanization of complicated situations (item (6) above); and CJM further worked on collection of inconsistent examples appearing in various relevant bibliographic records.

 

 

5.          Functions within CEAL

 

      CJM Chair continued with his responsibility of CJM representation in the CEAL Executive Committee.  In 2001, he:  reiterated to the Executive Committee that CEAL members wished CEAL to plan and offer a workshop on rare book cataloging; reported to the Executive Committee the 2001 CJM session program; and offered input with regard to CEAL business, including CEAL funding to committee projects and statistics reporting forms.

 

 

6.          Collaboration with Relevant External Individuals and Organizations

 

      CJM Chair continued to represent CEAL in the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC).  A CJM member, Eddy Harrison, continued his service on NCC in his capacity as a Japanese studies librarian with a significant contribution record to the profession; and he successfully completed, in June 2001, his term of office in this capacity within NCC.  In 2001, CJM reported back from NCC to CEAL President items of direct concern to CEAL members with regard to the future arrangements of the Japan Foundation-National Diet Library librarian training program and to collaborative efforts between NCC and CEAL, such as follow-up actions from NCC's Next Decade Planning Conference held in March 2000.  As a CEAL representative in NCC, CJM Chair participated in:  evaluation and rating of funding support application documents filed by libraries in the U.S. with the Japan Foundation New York Office; preparation of a letter in support of NCC's funding application filed with the Japan Foundation for offering of a junior Japanese studies librarian training workshop hoped for summer 2002 in Boston.  A current CJM member, Kuniko Yamada McVey, also participated in the evaluation/rating deliberation.  Toshie Marra assumed in fall 2001 membership responsibilities on this committee within NCC for the evaluation/rating task of application documents submitted to the Japan Foundation library support program.  Eddy Harrison also participated in the endorsement missive preparation efforts of the proposed junior Japanese studies librarian training workshop, on the planning committee within NCC for which Kuniko Yamada McVey played a pivotal role.  Furthermore, Eddy Harrison, Kuniko Yamada McVey, and Hideyuki Morimoto continued with contribution in various capacities in follow-up projects of NCC's Next Decade Planning Conference of March 2000, such as evaluation of the Multi-Volume Set Project and electronic reference service to isolated East Asian studies researchers.

 

      CJM also tried to develop and maintain collaborating relationship with other external individuals and organizations than NCC.  Such activities included:  Toshie Marra's close monitoring of relevant development in Japan, such as progress made by a subcommittee within National Institute of Informatics' Union Catalog Committee to prepare guidelines for cataloging of early Sino-Japanese titles and Asian studies electronic file provision at the University of Kyoto; continued communication with LC's Japanese Cataloging Teams; Kuniko Yamada McVey's nurturing of professional channels with librarians in Japan supportive of CEAL, such as NDL officials, a company history information specialist with the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations Library, and specialists with Nichigai Associates; and Chair's monitoring, for report to CEAL, of MARBI discussion and decisions.  Hideyuki Morimoto completed in March 2001 his term as Chair of OCLC CJK Users Group and then, in July 2001, assumed his responsibility as elected Secretary of ACRL Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Section within the American Library Association.  Toshie Marra was elected in spring 2001 as Japanese Officer within the OCLC CJK Users Group Executive Board for a term between March 2001 and spring 2003.  CJM enormously benefited from an arrangement of a CEAL member with the Ohio State University, who secured from the University travel funds for a guest speaker to make presentation at the 2001 CJM annual session as well as at another AAS forum in Chicago.  No current CJM member had a chance to attend the twelfth Annual Meeting of the European Association of Japanese Resource Specialists (EAJRS) held at Bratislava in September 2001; however, Kuniko Yamada McVey continued to follow EAJRS' activities.  CJM Chair also attended to innovative information service provided at the Bibliothèque, Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, and Japanese studies information service situations in Australia.

 

 

7.          Conclusion

 

      This present report of the CEAL Committee on Japanese Materials summarized the activities from period January 2001 to December 2001, in reference to CEAL reporting regulations based on the calendar year system.  The report covered the following topics:  (1) Committee membership; (2) Committee annual sessions; (3) Committee workshop; (4) Committee activities; (5) functions within CEAL; and (6) collaboration with relevant external individuals and organizations.  CJM for term 1999-2002 made steady progress in its activities.  Although the current cycle of CJM will be completed upon holding of its 2002 annual session in April 2002, it is anticipated that, through continued engagement in Committee activities by current Committee members and through formation of CJM for the next cycle, 2002-2005, the Committee will further respond to ever-changing and additional needs of CEAL members within the realm of Japanese studies information services operations.