Expatriate Japanese Families as Unexpected Users of Public Libraries: A Case Study in a College Town Community in the United States

This study explores the use of local public libraries by expatriate Japanese families staying in a micro-urban, university-centered community in the United States, with a specific focus on their reading and information gathering practices. The data used for the study was collected through semi-structured interviews the authors conducted in 2013. The expatriate families in this study consist of those who temporarily live in the area with clear prospects of returning to Japan. All of the families the authors interviewed included a member who was either a corporate transferee (i.e. an employee of a transnational corporation assigned to work in a U.S. office) or a degree-seeking international student, and had concrete plans to move back to Japan after a few years of stay in the United States. Dali (2012) identifies “immigrant readership” as one area in the library and information science scholarship where more research and evidence-based discussions are desired. Reading and information gathering activities of short-term transnational residents of the United States, such as the Japanese families in this study, are similarly less well documented or understood. Furthermore, due to the transient nature of their stay, border-crossing families of corporate transferees and international students have traditionally been less visible as members of “local communities” while public libraries sought to reach out to diverse and diversifying bodies of local residents. “Trailing” family members of international workers and students have also been outside of the scope of the service of academic and research libraries. This study finds that despite not being seen as a potential patron group, the non-employee or non-student members of the expatriate families frequently used local public libraries. Highly used and desired items centered on audio-visual titles and children’s books, due largely to their limited ability to read in English, but they were enthusiastic users of the public libraries, who actively chose materials to borrow based on their mobility prospects and (self-)educational needs. In addition, the study finds that in spite of obvious benefits to border-crossing families, the adoption of e-books was extremely low. This was partly due to a mismatch between the families’ language preferences and local libraries’ digital lending collections, and partly due to limited circulation of e-books published in Japan outside of the Japanese market. Drawing on the new mobilities paradigm (Sheller and Urry 2006) that posits different population groups and material objects ride the flow of globalization at much different rates, the authors argue that public libraries in the 21st century face challenges of developing effective strategies to engage with patrons with different levels of social, physical and transnational mobilities, as well as differentially mobile materials. The authors also discuss possibilities of future, more full-scale studies, as well as possibilities of building partnerships with public libraries based on the findings.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/lib_present/1009/thumbnail.jp

Library and Information Science Examination: A Report on Provisional Implementation in Japan / Hiroya Takeuchi, Akira Nemoto, Makiko Miwa... [et.al] al.

This paper aims to describe the details of the challenging Library and Information Science (LIS) examinations, which the Japan Society of Library and Information Science (JSLIS) has conducted annually on a trial basis since 2007, and discuss some of observations. For such purposes, its objective, coverage of subject areas, examination style and reporting of results to students are described. We also discuss our experiences and observations of the provisional implementation of the LIS examination over the past four years. The results of the examination indicated that senior students achieved higher scores than junior students in general, and that the students from university LIS faculties achieved generally higher scores than did those from the Shisho certificate courses, which cover a more limited subject area of LIS than LIS specialty programs. These results suggest that the examination is a good measure of student proficiency, which reflects the quality of the educational programs. The problems to be solved before full-scale implementation can be summarized as follows: 1) the lack of standard textbooks covering the scope of the examination; 2) the low economic base for an annual examination; 3) lack of awareness of the need for this examination in standardizing the curricula for LIS education; and 4) the lack of a mechanism to implement the examination nationwide to facilitate participation by students living far from examination venues

A Management of Training Courses of Teacher Librarian Using NetCommons2 System

本研究ノートでは、国立情報学研究所が制作したCMSであるNetCommons2を用い、2009年9月から2010年7月にかけて行った司書教諭講習科目の授業実践を取り上げる。NetCommons2を用いた授業展開により、レジュメの配布やWebサイト上の資料を学習者へ提示することが容易になっただけでなく、学習者がNetCommons2上の情報を書き換える実習が可能になった。このような実践を紹介しつつ、授業記録と学習者に対して実施した授業アンケートを用いながら、NetCommons2がシステム管理者、授業者、学習者それぞれに対して効果的だったかについて検討を行う。This research report described three practices of training course of teacher librarian, using NetCommons2 system. NetCommons2 system is a CMS (Content Management System) developed by National Institute of Informatics. The lecturor have able to more easily distribute resume files to students and show web materials in a lesson. Moreover, in a class, students have given a presentation with web page by using NetCommons2. This report also have showed a effectiveness and future tasks of class in analysing the evaluation by students.研究ノート/Note

A practice of twitter as a communication tool in two different university classes

本報告では, Twitterを用いた大学間での授業実践について述べる。現在ICTの活用が幅広い分野で求められており, TwitterはICT活用のメディアの1つとして挙げられる。今回は異なる二大学間で電子書籍に関する同一の課題を設定し, Twitterを用いて発言させる演習を行った。それぞれの授業は曜日も時間帯も異なっていたが, Twitterを用いることで, 互いの受講生の交流を実現でき, 協力要請を行った大学図書館員の授業参加を容易に行えた。授業後の受講生に対するアンケート結果では, 授業に対する積極的な評価がある一方, 授業計画の見直しや, 教材について改善が必要であることを示唆するような評価も見られた。This paper describes a cooperative practice using Twitter between two universities. Twitter is the most popular social networking tool in Japan. We offered a class about electronic books between two universities. In the class, we gave an assignment of report and feedback about using Twitter. The situation of the two classes was different of place, time, and member. Using Twitter, we could communicate each other beyond those boundaries. Even a librarian could join the class. Considering students\u27feedback, our teaching scheme and materials have a room for improvement

The Reformation of Japanese School Library in 1945-1953 : A Transcript Interviewing to Tsunenobu FUKAGAWA

本資料は、1946年から1961年までの間、文部省の担当官として学校図書館行政に携わった深川恒喜に対して、1985年に塩見昇が実施したインタビューの記録である。This material is transcript of interview with Tunenobu FUKAGAWA, who was duty officer of school library in ministry of education in Japan. This interview brought by Noboru SHIOMI in 1985.資料/Research Materia