(6 May 2022) A unique cafe in Japan has been drawing attention in recent weeks. The Manuscript Writing Cafe offers little by way of food or drink (just self-service coffee or tea), but what it does offer is concentration and motivation for writers struggling to finish their work. Patrons pay a small hourly fee and…
By Ruth A. Pagell* What new metric has been added to THE Impact Rankings? How do Japan University Rankings differ from Japan in World Rankings? Is it better to rank 112 or 47 in QS Subject rankings (See Example 1)? (5 May 2022) This is a quick take on the usual spring updates, including…
(12 Apr 2022) YOKOTE, Akita Prefecture–Stocktaking of books at a municipal library here is now fully automated under a trial experiment that potentially could see humans removed from the process altogether. A robot assigned to locate books by reading data stored in integrated circuit (IC) tags on each tome can finish the task in…
(11 Apr 2022) JST, the Japan Science & Technology Agency, has revised its policy on Open Access to research publications and research data management and published on 1 April, 2022. JST developed “JST Policy on Open Access” in 2013 and “JST Policy on Open Access to Research Publications and Research Data Management” in 2017…
(9 Mar 2022) Thousands of ancient parchments recounting the persecution against Christians between the 17th and 19th centuries have been restored and digitized with the collaboration of Japanese cultural institutions. A Vatican Library collection containing 14,000 ancient documents on the history of the persecution of Christians in Japan during the Edo period has been…
(2 Mar 2022) The National Diet Library has released the report of a research project on the response to COVID-19 by public libraries in Japan, which was conducted during fiscal 2021 in cooperation with the Japan Library Association. In the project, an online questionnaire survey was conducted for all public libraries in Japan, and…
(8 Feb 2022) Global research and education leader Wiley today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on open access publishing with the library directors of Tohoku University, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, and Tokyo University of Science. This MoU is intended to be the basis for…
(4 Jan 2022) With the December 31, 2021, retirement of Mr. TANAKA Hisanori, Ms. KATAYAMA Nobuko has been named Deputy Director General of the National Diet Library, effective January 1, 2022. Since joining the National Diet Library in 1986, Ms. Katayama has served as director general of the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, the…
(16 Dec 2021) Meiji University began integrating services at its two manga libraries this spring in an effort to preserve Japan’s world- renowned manga culture. The Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures, which has a total of about 410,000 items, boasts one of the largest collections of comic books in Japan. In…
(Dec 2021) News from National Diet Library, Japan: Acquisition under the current E-Legal Deposit System Since 2013, the National Diet Library (NDL) has been collecting digital information made available to the public by private publishers, which we considered to be equivalent to books or serials (online publications). Digital information stored with specific codes (ISBN,…