(28 Feb 2023) Tokyo-based architecture studio Hiroshi Nakamura and NAP has recently completed a captivating subterranean library. Dubbed Underground Library, the new reading space can be found beneath a grassy knoll located on the Kurkku Fields sustainable farm in Chiba, Japan. The innovative project was designed to offer patrons a reflective literature experience, while sitting…
(9 Jan 2023) Wiley announced remarkable growth of an open access agreement in Japan by increasing from four to 18 participating institutions. Based on the success of the initial agreement by four Japanese institutions in 2022, a new agreement between Wiley and JUSTICE (Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources) allows 14 new universities…
(21 Nov 2022) Springer Nature is announcing what it says is the largest transformative agreement in Japan, comprising the engagement of 10 institutions that will generate the open-access of close to 900 articles in the coming year. The University of Tokyo is among the institutions participating in the accord, and the program will allow…
(17 Nov 2022) Oxford University Press (OUP), has today announced a transformative three-year Read and Publish agreement with major journals consortium, the Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE). Under the agreement, members of the JUSTICE consortium that opt-in will be able to rapidly increase the proportion of articles that they publish open…
(4 Nov 2022) Librarians around Japan are raising concerns their independence may be in jeopardy after the education ministry asked them to stock more books about North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals. Following the Cabinet Secretariat’s instructions, the education ministry sent a document to public and school libraries, asking them to help maintain public attention…
(29 Oct 2022) Elementary, junior high and high school students who have used e-books tend to find paper books easier to read, according to a recent survey conducted by the Japan School Library Association. The annual survey is conducted to determine reading trends among students. A total of 14,091 students enrolled at 161 schools nationwide,…
(24 Aug 2022) The latest National Diet Library Newsletter has been released, with table of contents as below: Selections from NDL collections Browsing Joruri books with YOSHINAGA Motonobu, NDL Director General (Part Two) Map Collections in the National Diet Library (3) Jutei bankoku zenzu Budget NDL Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 News from…
(19 Jul 2022) NDL is holding an online forum, “Digital Archive Festival 2022 – Japan Search Day” on 25th August. The forum will be conducted in Japanese. More information can be found here (in Japanese).
(25 May 2022) Alarmed by the declining stature of its universities, Japan is planning to shower up to $2.3 billion a year on a handful of schools in hopes of boosting their prominence. The scheme was approved by the Japanese legislature on 18 May, although many details, including how to pick the favored universities, are still…
(19 May 2022) With the enforcement of the Act Partially Amending Japan’s Copyright Act (Act No. 52 of 2021), the NDL is now able to transmit digitized versions of out-of-print or otherwise difficult-to-obtain materials to individuals via the Internet. In making this revision of the law, legislators were responding to advances in digitization and networking…