National Diet Library Newsletter
No. 157, October 2007
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Kansai-kan’s step forward
- a leap from the first stage to a period of growth -
(part 1/2)
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Mitsuaki Okamura Deputy Director General Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library |
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This is a translation of the article of the same title
in the NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 556 (July 2007).
Contents
Kansai-kan
The National Diet Library (NDL) consists of the central library and the branch libraries; the central library comprises the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan. As part of the central library, the Kansai-kan has been providing library services to the National Diet, the executive and judicial branches of the government and the general public since it opened in October 2002, working in tandem with the Tokyo Main Library.
The Kansai-kan will mark its 5th anniversary in October 2007. This past five years can be regarded as the first stage that put the Kansai-kan’s businesses and services on track.
In FY2006, we formulated the Kansai-kan Mid-term Basic Plan based on the achievements and changes in the first stage. The plan shows the new direction and objectives for the Kansai-kan in the next five years or so, to around FY2011. We will introduce the overview and the current situation in which it is taking shape. Looking at the coming five years from FY2007, we would like to regard it as a period of growth.
1. Kansai-kan’s role in Kansai Science City and the Kinki region
Fig. 1 Shared and integrated functions between the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan
The Kansai-kan is located in Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto Prefecture, a part of the Kansai Science City, which lies astride Kyoto, Nara and Osaka Prefectures. Kansai Science City was founded as the base of cultural and academic research in Japan under cooperation among industry, government, and academia. Now, “Third Stage Plan”[*1] has been formulated, and a promotion committee was launched to put the plan steadily into practice. The Kansai-kan is expected to play a role of assistance for research activities, information transmission services and others.
Keihanna Plaza: the heart of communication in Kansai Science City
Reflecting the locational conditions of the Kansai-kan, more than 80% of on-site users consist of those who aim at academic research (writing academic papers, etc.), and those who come for their hobbies or cultural activities. Users who visit the Kansai-kan purely for business purposes account for only about 10%, in contrast to the Tokyo Main Library, half of whose on-site users come for business purposes.
Therefore, we will aim to play a role as a large research library in the Kansai Science City and the Kinki region, mainly targeting professional researchers in the Kansai Science City, and the general public and students doing research activities.
We would like to improve further our services and to create new services through a close relationship with local society, providing services which meet local needs, and occupying the core of the local information community.
The Kansai-kan has a large General Collections Room, where more than 90,000 volumes of the following materials in total are available on the open shelves: reference books, abstracts and indexes, major periodicals and newspapers, government publications, laws and parliamentary documents, library information science materials, Japanese telephone directories and more. In January 2007, we rearranged the General Collections Room extensively, based on the results of questionnaires and various statistics. This is the realization of our efforts to meet users’ needs actively. The details are in the NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 552 (Mar. 2007) (Japanese only).
Just waiting for on-site users to walk in cannot make us the service hub of the local information community. Since FY2005, we have been sending out staff members of the Kansai-kan on request to nearby institutions to give advice sessions on how to make best use of the library and its materials.
We hold these sessions in clients’ institutions according to clients’ choice in advance from the menu; it also aims to stimulate communication with other institutions by going actively outside of the library.
2. Enhancement of public relations and outward communication
The Kansai-kan is still not known to people very much; even its location is sometimes misreported in Osaka. In order to publicize the existence of the Kansai-kan and make its projects and services better known, we have to improve public relations and outward communication strategically.
Enhancement of public relations
Until now, we had only sporadic contacts with mass media such as requesting proofreading of articles in information magazines and being interviewed on our events and exhibitions. But we would like to create an environment where we can send messages from the Kansai-kan at any time.
We would also like to increase the number of events we hold including “Database Forum”[*2] and lectures and try various ways of making the Kansai-kan noticeable, for example, printing a unified image of the Kansai-kan or a logo[*3] on pamphlets and other documents for the events.
Enhancement of outward communication
1) Kansai Science City
The Keihanna Center for New Industry Creation and Exchange holds a monthly “Science Cafe,” which provides timely topics and a place for social interaction to research institutions, universities, companies and others in the Kansai Science City in the hope of motivating a business start-up or finding a clue for collaborative research.
In addition to participating in the event every month, one of the Kansai-kan staff members even gave a lecture on the Digital Archiving Project this February because the project’s forward planning may bring us the need for coordination and cooperation with other research institutions. We also seek chances to support research practically through events in which many researchers participate.
Science Cafe
On April 17, a discussion session and on-site inspection of the location and facilities of the Kansai Science City were held by the Kansai Research Institute at the Vocational Museum. The next session and on-site inspection which were held at the Kansai-kan on July 18, included a guided tour of the Kansai-kan and introduction of its projects and services. The agenda was “Establishment of a common space for transmission of information in the Kansai Science City.” The Kansai-kan staff proposed providing a space for transmission of information by establishing an area for pamphlets and PR magazines of the institutions in the Kansai Science City and it was approved.
As one of the institutions in the Kansai Science City, the Kansai-kan makes a point of attending the meetings hosted by the Kansai Research Institute and tries to enhance mutual understanding and exchange.
2) Public libraries in the Kinkiregion
We need to strengthen ties with public libraries and academic libraries in light of promoting the use of the Kansai-kan as a research library and also promoting library cooperation.
In the Kinki region, most of the public libraries participate in the Kinki Kokyo Toshokan Kyogikai (Kinki Public Library Association) (the Librarian of the Osaka Prefectural Central Library serves as the chairperson), which is making efforts to promote library projects and mutual cooperation. This year, a staff member of the Kansai-kan attended the board meeting for the first time as observer and outlined the Kansai-kan Mid-term Basic Plan. We would like to contribute to such information exchange in the future. We also aim at close coordination achieved by participating in prefectural library conferences, dispatching lecturers to workshops and PR for the Kansai-kan’s events through the information network of each prefecture.
Involving the Kansai-kan as a whole, we will provide an advice session for the secretariat of the Kansai Economic Federation, which covers about 600 companies in the Kansai area. The session will cover the NDL online services including helpful industry information guides and the Kansai-kan collection.
Osaka Prefectural Central Library
[*1] “Third Stage Plan,” which was formulated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation, indicates the direction of the new activities of Kansai Science City for the next decade.
[*2] Demonstration and explanation of the NDL databases. In 2007, it was held at both of the Kansai-kan and the Tokyo Main Library.
[*3] We are preparing to create a logo for the Kansai-kan. Currently we use the two following logos for different Kansai-kan projects. The one on the left is for the Collaborative Reference Database System and that on the right is for pamphlets for on-site services.
To be continued in the next issue (No.158).
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