Many higher education institutions in Norway are either national or public, as are many of the other European universities. Approximately 220 thousand students are registered at higher education institutions, of which 27,500 are students at the University of Oslo. Students usually receive student loans. Registration fees, textbook fees and living expenses are needed, but there are no course fees. University libraries are required to collect books designated as must-read books and books for research. It is therefore possible to study using library books only.

Seven universities, eight academic and art research institutions, and twenty-two regional universities and other private schools are registered with the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research as higher education institutions.

up

The Library of Humanities and Social Sciences, where I work, is one of the four branch libraries of the University of Oslo Library. The Library was established in 1811, at the same time as the University of Christiania (today's University of Oslo) was established. In 1814, when Norway's own constitution was permitted under Swedish control, the University of Christiania Library also acquired the function of a national library. The library's two parallel functions – being both a national library as well as a university library – continued until the physical separation of these two functions in 1999, when the Library of Humanities and Social Sciences was moved to the main campus.

At the University of Oslo, Japanese studies started in the 1960s. However, materials related to Japan, such as in linguistics and ethnology had already been purchased from the beginning of the 1900s. Before the new library was established, Japanese studies materials were spread around various faculty libraries. In 1999, we moved to the new building of the Library of Humanities and Social Sciences. The new library aims at meeting the requirements of the new age. Almost all the Japanese studies materials were moved to this new building.

At the new library, we keep 2.15 million books, 4,500 titles of periodicals and 2,600 titles of electronic journals as of 2008. These are the numbers for the whole library, not only for Japanese studies. As the stacks have limited space, we try to limit the amount of paper materials, and rather to increase the amount of digital materials. However, as most of the digital materials are in English, it is impossible to search by Norwegian keywords. For this reason, search for digital materials cannot be done in an efficient way. Our future challenges are therefore how to make these materials more easily accessible to users. At present, we try to find mappable cataloguing, for instance by using LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) or the Dewey system. At this stage, however, this is yet just an idea, and the realization of this may take time.

up

The organization of academic libraries differs in each of the Scandinavian countries. At the University of Oslo Library, Japanese language materials are kept as a special collection, together with materials in Arabic, Hebraic, Indo-Iranian, Chinese, Korean, Tibetan, and other non-Western languages. On other floors, materials for Japanese studies written in English are shelved according to the Dewey Decimal Classification. Last year about 300 paper materials were purchased by the Japanese studies budget, or donated. Around 30% of these materials on Japan and Japanese studies are in the Japanese language, the rest are in English or other European languages. Annually, approximately 25-30% of materials acquired by the Japanese studies budget are written in Japanese.

In Norway, Japanese language studies and/or Japanese studies have also been offered at the University of Bergen and at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim). As is the case for most of the university libraries in Scandinavia, nobody can handle materials in Japanese or Chinese. Often, Japanese-written materials are not included in OPAC at other university libraries. Only the University of Oslo Library keeps a subject librarian specializing in East Asia. Here, about 90% of the Japanese materials are already included in OPAC.

A survey in 2008 of 31 academic libraries in the Nordic countries, conducted through the network of NIAS (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies), shows the following results: out of 15 libraries that answered, eight of them keep materials for Japanese studies. However, only six libraries have staff who understand Japanese. Among the latter group, only three staff members have participated in NDL's training program for information specialists for Japanese studies. Most of the staff are part-time workers or students. Thus, at present, it is difficult for me to know the situation of people working with Japanese studies materials at the libraries.

About 170 students are registered for Japanese studies today in University of Oslo, including bachelor and master levels. Students who take classes within the Japanese studies program, but whose major is not Japanese, are not included in the above number. In the 1990s, Japanese studies students were generally interested in martial arts and/or traditional culture. Nowadays, interest in Japanese pop culture, such as animation and computer games, is often the motivation for taking the course. This year, we invited a guest professor sponsored by the Japan Foundation to give a lecture series on pop culture. His lectures attracted a large number of students.

up

As we do not possess all the Japanese materials which students and researchers need, we often use ILL (Inter-library loan) to answer users' requests. During recent years it has become easier to access Japanese full-text periodical articles by using CiNii, which are offered by NII (National Institute of Informatics). However, periodical articles especially in the humanities are still difficult to find in digital format. We hope that more academic papers will be published in digital format.

Many users within the humanities still prefer to read paper materials even though they are digitalized. If all compulsory books are provided as digital books, the future situation may change. Before this is realized, however, there are many obstacles to surmount– such as the issues of copyright and rights for libraries. NDL's Digital Library from the Meiji Era has now improved its usability. Overseas users like us are very interested in the Japanese situation for digital books.

In recent years, the University of Oslo Library as a whole arranges orientation meetings for students, and teaches them citation techniques and academic information search. In such library courses for students majoring in Japanese studies, we teach them how to search materials by mainly using English. In each of these courses, students are obliged to submit a report aside from an examination. I offer two-hour courses for search training on databases, how to collect materials, and citation techniques in compulsory or voluntary courses.

The University of Oslo in general uses a digital classroom software called "Fronter." The Japanese Studies program uses this software as well. For my library courses, I can deliver course materials through Fronter's message board and mailing list.

up

Users studying non-Western languages, such as Arabic or Urdu, are increasing. The students' choice of such "exotic" subjects often seems to be connected to their own cultural identity, while Chinese and Japanese studies are chosen for other reasons.

Since our Japanese collection is limited I often use ILL to get necessary Japanese materials. As the University of Oslo Library is a member of OCLC's ILL network, the system is used on a daily basis by the library as a whole. Many Japanese materials are registered on OCLC, so we can order Japanese-language materials through it. However, requests often fail during the lending process, compared with when requesting Western-language materials. Perhaps this happens because many persons working for ILL in libraries do not understand the Japanese language. In case of urgent requests, I use my personal network with nearby libraries in Europe, in a personal, non-official procedure. Or, in some cases I make a request to the NDL, as its service is rapid. We have to rely on ILL because our budget for Japanese materials is limited.

Small libraries like ours need support from other libraries in order to provide sufficient materials. Such support is made possible through networking. I would like to mention two specific networks in the Nordic and European countries; NIAS (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies) and EAJRS (European Association of Japanese Resource Specialists).

EAJRS, as its name shows, is not an organization for libraries, but for persons related to Japanese materials. Not only library-related people, but also museum-related people, researchers and curators are included in this association. Participants in the meetings are not only from Nordic countries, but also from North America, Asia and Japan. EAJRS is a direct network of Japanese materials for me, and is a lifeline for my daily business. It is highly valuable to me to get in touch with other European libraries through these meetings.

NIAS is an academic organization that supports academic research activities such as publication, through the Nordic NIAS Council. As its name shows, it supports Asian studies in five Nordic countries. It is hard to figure out the entire picture of the Asian studies in Nordic countries, but NIAS tries to make the network stable. NIAS has a library section, NIASLinc, which keeps paper materials. It funds a scholarship, and gives travel and accommodation support for researchers, so that they can use materials of NIAS. NIASLinc also manages the AsiaPortal, which provides access to licensed databases and magazines for members, and gives information on Nordic countries' Asia-studies member situations. NIAS covers the field of Asian studies as a whole, including Japanese materials in the AsiaPortal.

A network like the CEAL (Council of East Asian Libraries) in North America is needed. And Asian academic libraries in Europe are now trying to establish one. It is supposed to become a platform supporting Asian studies as a whole. For instance, the network will help in negotiations with vendors. Our library situation in Europe is that (perhaps the same in Japan) human resources will not increase in the near future, but on the contrary, our duty increases. It is therefore necessary for libraries to construct support systems which may give sufficient service to our users in Asian studies, even if their institution libraries don't have staff to deal with Asian materials.

User training will be the most important service which libraries need to provide in the future. Today's services by the NDL and the databases of NII are very useful for Japanese studies in abroad. However, they are not well known to many researchers and teachers. It is a task for academic libraries to introduce and spread these tools to such people.

The situation in the Nordic countries is probably the same as in other small countries. Large countries in which Asian academic libraries are not yet stable may also have a similar situation. I hope that my talk has made you, who work for user services at academic libraries in Japan, more aware of the overseas needs.

After the lecture there was a question-and-answer session on the role of librarians in academic libraries, issues of modern Japanese society, the situation of networking among researchers of Japanese studies, career options of students majoring in Japanese, and the PC support situation for Japanese and so on.

up