On October 5, 2002, the opening ceremony of the Kansai-kan of the National
Diet Library was held in the Kansai-kan building in Seika-cho, Soraku-gun,
Kyoto. After the ribbon-cutting at the Hall, the opening ceremony was held
in the Auditorium, followed by a preview of reading rooms, a reception
and a preview of the stacks.
178 guests from the National Diet, government agencies, cultural and
academic bodies, local governments etc. attended the ceremony and Mr.Takao
Kurosawa, the Librarian of the National Diet Library, Mr. Tamisuke Watanuki,
Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Mr. Hiroyuki Kurata, President
of the House of Councillors, gave addresses.
Then we received congratulatory speeches from Ms. Atsuko Toyama, Minister
of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (read by Mr. Akio
Yuki, Minister's Secretariat), Mr. Teiichi Aramaki, Chairman of the Association
of Kansai Science City, Mr. Makoto Nagao, President of the Japan Library
Association, and Dr. Hyun-Taek Shin, Director General of the National Library
of Korea.
Here, we carry the address of Mr. Kurosawa and the speech of Dr. Shin.
(For detailed information about the Kansai-kan, please refer to the
"Overview
of the facilities of the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library" in
NDL newsletter no.124, and the "Kansai-kan
of the National Diet Library opened on October 7 " in no.127. You can
also enjoy a tour of the Kansai-kan on the web by clicking on "Opening
of the Kansai-kan" in the NDL website.)
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The
Address of Mr. Kurosawa
I would like to address a few words on the occasion of the opening ceremony
of the Kansai-kan on the National Diet Library.
It is the greatest honor for the National Diet Library to hold this
ceremony, in the presence of so many guests, including the Speaker of the
House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors.
It was more than 20 years ago that the idea of building the Kansai-kan
was formed. Since then, we formulated the plan, chose this site in Kansai
Science City which extends over Kyoto, Osaka and Nara (situated in the
Keihanna Hills), held the design competition, and then started the construction.
After four years of construction work, we are finally here to celebrate
the opening.
Throughout that long period, many people of various quarters gave us
their support and great efforts. Especially, we received enormous support
and encouragement from the members of the Diet. I would like to express
my deep appreciation to you.
The Kansai-kan is a large general library. The reading room has 350
seats equipped with computer terminals. About 80,000 volumes of reference
books and Asian materials are available on the open shelves. In the stacks,
3 million volumes are stored and ready to be used.
At the same time, the Kansai-kan is a part of the National Diet Library
and shares its functions. From now, three facilities of the National Diet
Library, that is, the Tokyo Main Library, the Kansai-kan, and the International
Library for Children's Literature will be linked organically, working in
tandem to serve the Diet and the people in Japan.
With the completion of the Kansai-kan, the National Diet Library is
now able to function as a library suited to the highly-advanced information
society. Taking advantage of the establishment of the Kansai-kan, we developed
a new information system, aiming at offering our catalog and Japanese periodicals
index via the Internet so that users across the country would be able to
use the NDL services. We also plan to enhance our digital library services
and carry out new plans and experimental projects.
The all staff of the National Diet Library will make efforts to enable
users to take full advantage of the ideal environment such as information
technologies, and to fulfill the mission entrusted to us.
I conclude my address by asking your further support and encouragement. |
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Speech
by Dr.Shin, Director General of the National Library of Korea
I am most honored to have an opportunity to offer my congratulations
on this occasion, attended by Mr. Watanuki, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Mr.Kurata, President of the House of Councillors, Mr.Kurosawa, Librarian
of the National Diet Library and many important people of library-related
fields including Mr. Nagao, President of the Japan Library Association.
On behalf of libraries all over the world, I heartily congratulate the
opening of such a great facility as the Kansai-kan of the National Diet
Library after twenty years of thoroughgoing preparations and steady construction
in a bid to establish a cutting edge library of the most advanced model
in response to the sharp increase of publications, media diversification
and development of information and communications technology.
Also I would like to pay a heartfelt compliment to Mr.Kurosawa and the
staff of the National Diet Library who worked hard to establish the Kansai-kan.
This year, the FIFA World Cup was successfully co-hosted by Korea and
Japan and we received admiration from many countries. It is also acclaimed
as a contributor to building goodwill between the two countries.
I am very glad that I have an opportunity to visit Japan this memorable
year named "Year of Friendship between Korea and Japan", when various cultural
events, expositions and performances are co-hosted. Taking this opportunity,
I would like to convey congratulations from Korean people.
This century is called the "century of knowledge and information". With
the revolutionary development of information and communications technology,
libraries are now required to adapt to a new information environment which
makes use of advanced information processing technology and new communications
media. Electronic books might be the simplest example. At the same time,
people's needs for knowledge become more and more diversified.
In this new era, traditional library service is not enough to meet the
diversified needs for knowledge and information of the people. If we stay
with conventional services, the raison d'etre of libraries might be questioned
and ignored.
It is needed for libraries all over the world to respond creatively
and actively to the changes and develop into libraries of a new era, so
that we may continue to enjoy the steadfast support of the people.
Based on the above understanding, I say that it is a well-timed decision
for the National Diet Library to establish the Kansai-kan after long-term
examination and consideration. It set an example for libraries of the world.
I hope that the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library will be a model
future-oriented library and contribute to the development of libraries
all over the world.
The National Library of Korea is also making efforts to adapt to the
changing environment and drew up the "Construction Plan of the National
Digital Library" in 2001, aiming to provide a wide variety of services
for the people of the information age. Looking toward the opening
in 2008, we are now working on some of the primary projects. I would most
appreciate it if you kindly extend your support and cooperation to our
new projects.
Lastly, I would like to congratulate again the opening of the Kansai-kan
and thank you for giving me the honor to attend this memorable opening
ceremony. Also, I would like to deliver my respect again to Mr. Kurosawa
and others who worked earnestly for the establishment of the Kansai-kan.
I would like to conclude my congratulatory speech by hoping that the
Kansai-kan will develop into a model library of the world in future.
Thank you for your kind attention.
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