Library Needs of Japanese Studies Academics
Professor Vera Mackie, Professor of Japanese Studies, School of Social Sciences and Asian Languages Curtin University of Technology.
Paper presented at the Library and Information Needs of Asian Studies Academics lunchtime panel at the Asian Studies Association of Australia, 12th Biennial Conference Asia in Global Context, Monday 28 September 1998. Published in East Asian Library Resources Group of Australia newsletter, no. 38, November 1988.
There are very specific needs for academics in Japanese Studies because Japanese is one of the character-based languages. This means that there are problems in training researchers in the reading of these materials, in developing library cataloguing systems which can handle these materials, in training specialist staff who can locate, acquire, catalogue and manage collections and provide services to readers and researchers, and in developing software to deal with character-based catalogues and databases.
The use of Sino-Japanese characters also means that many materials which can be delivered in electronic format in European languages can not so easily be handled in electronic format in the Japanese language without specialised computer equipment. At the very least, such systems require computers with large memories and specialised software. Thus, Japanese Studies academics are perhaps more reliant than others on materials in traditional printed formats.
For many researchers, the necessary materials are only available in Japanese libraries such as the National Diet Library or in specialised archives, but for the purposes of this report, I will concentrate on the availability of materials in Australian university libraries.
As for library collections of Japanese language materials, there are a few good collections in Australia, mainly on the East coast. Canberra has the best collections, mainly in the National Library of Australia and the Menzies Library of the Australian National University. These collections are the best in the country for periodicals and materials on contemporary Japan. The University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, and Monash University Library also have reasonable collections, often reflecting the research interests of their staff and the historical development of the Japanese Studies program at each institution. Impressionistically, I would suggest that the University of Sydney is stronger on Japanese literature, the University of Melbourne on modern Japanese history, and Monash University on contemporary Japanese society and Japanese linguistics. Several other university libraries have excellent collections of English-language materials on Japan. Unfortunately, universities outside the south-eastern corner of Australia have not been able to build up comparable collections, and researchers need to use their limited research funding on travel to the east coast collections.
For research in modern Japanese history and literature, the necessary materials are often available in facsimile edition rather than microfilm format. However, information about such materials may be hard to obtain if they are published by small publishers. Facsimile editions are easy to use for researchers at the library in question, but can be expensive to acquire and take up shelf space. If catalogued as serials, they may be difficult to obtain through interlibrary loans if libraries do not loan out serials.
Neverthless, the libraries of the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University and the National Library of Australia have between them acquired facsimile editions of some of the major literary journals, popular journals and magazines, and the publications of political groups from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It would be useful to conduct a survey of these materials and identify overlaps and gaps in these collections in preparation for future acquisitions.
We also need to monitor future trends and prepare for trends to move to microfilm or CD ROM format and adjust acquisition policies accordingly. A few libraries provide access to on-line search facilities such as the Nikkei database, and some have moved to acquire such items as the Asahi newspaper on CD Rom, or the catalogues of the National Diet Library in CD ROM. All of these sources are however, expensive, and involve complicated licensing agreements. A major drawback is that many electronic and CD ROM sources have restrictive site licenses which make it difficult to share resources across libraries. The copyright and licensing issue is one which needs to be tackled on a national basis.
Some of these issues may, however, be solved through the development of internet access to major databases. It is already possible to access the National Diet Library catalogue through the internet and to gain access to databases of books in print and of journal articles. Some university library home pages, such as Monash University, the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University provide hot links to these databases. The home page of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia also has some useful links. The extension of the Australian National CJK service to all university libraries, and the provision by these libraries of CJK catalogue entries to both the CJK system and the Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) would facilitate the management of a distributed national collection of Japanese language materials.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are some libraries with serious backlogs of uncatalogued items. Most libraries are currently suffering severe financial constraints. Periodicals are the first items to be hit, as libraries are reluctant to commit funding on a continuing basis. Some university libraries are also starting to see cuts to the acquisition of monographs. Such budget constraints make Japanese collections particularly vulnerable, because of the weakness of the Australian dollar, compared to the Japanese yen.
Some small relief is available through the Japan Foundation Library Acquisition Grants, whereby university libraries may apply for the purchase of monographs selected by the university, with the university agreeing to meet freight and handling charges. While this scheme provides valuable assistance, as far as I know it does not extend to serials, microfilms, or audiovisual materials.
The Department of Education (DEETYA) also provides research infrastructure support in the form of competitive grants administered through the Research Infrastructure and Equipment Fund (RIEF). The Victorian university libraries were successful in obtaining such funding for Japanese legal materials a few years ago, and the Western Australian university libraries currently have an application under consideration.
Given these financial constraints, it is likely that researchers will become increasingly dependent on the East coast collections. These collections should be maintained as a national priority, and it will be necessary to find ways of facilitating access to these collections.
Academics in employment may fund such research trips through applications to such bodies as the Australian Research Council, or through university research budgets, for the moment at least. The situation of postgraduate students, however, is much more serious. One practical suggestion could be the revival of the Asian Studies Library Scholarships. For relatively modest funding, a fwe postgraduate students could be given transport costs and student dormitory accommodation costs for brief periods of library research in the East coast collections. Perhaps libraries could assist with the provision of photocopying or office space, along the lines of the National Library of Australia's Harold White Fellowship Scheme.
Japanese Studies academics also need the support of specialist librarians who are bilingual in Japanese and English. Some university libraries do maintain specialist Japanese librarians, and the National Library of Australia employs several specialist Japanese librarians. But many more libraries are without a specialist librarian. This means that cataloguing is either handled by casual workers or by sending materials to such organisations as CAVAL in Melbourne. It also means that Japanese Studies academics are forced to spend time on informally identifying gaps in collections, and locating and ordering materials, jobs which would be handled by collection management librarians in other areas.
We thus need to promote the combined study of Japanese (and other Asian languages) and librarianship, and convince our Japanese language students that librarianship could be a viable career. Curtin University of Technology currently offers double degrees in Asian Studies and Information Studies and Records Management. It would be useful to find out if such combined courses are available at other institutions.
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