1 AAU/ARL/NCC Japan Project Advisory Committee (JPAC) Report By Toshie Marra NCC Annual Open Meeting Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, Sunset Room, San Diego, California, Thursday, March 4, 2004, 9:00 a.m.-12:00

2 January 2003  NCC agreed to take over the administration of the AAU/ARL Global Resources Program Japan Journal Access Project from ARL  Constituted the Japan Project Advisory Committee (JPAC): –Charge: To make recommendations to the NCC on possible projects to consider for future Japan Project initiatives for next 5 years –Members: John Campbell (co-chair) Toshie Marra (co-chair) Tokiko Bazzell Sally Hastings Karl Lo Susan Napier

3 September 2003 JPAC submitted recommendations: 1) Creating an open archive of Web resources 2) Providing more convenient access to Japanese language newspaper materials 3) Serving as a clearinghouse for Japanese government reports 4) Promoting the digitization of rare holdings and making them accessible on the Web

4 1) Creating an Open Archive of Web Resources Existing projects of Web archiving and other efforts:  NDL’s WARP (Web Archiving Project)  Project by the Global Security Research Center, Keio University (G-SEC)  NII’s Project  CULCON’s Cross Currents Project  PAIR (Portal to Asian Internet Resources)  Internet Archive

5 1)Creating an Open Archive of Web Resources JPAC’s recommendations:  No projects seem to systematically preserve and provide easy access to Web resources wanted by U.S. scholars of Japanese studies (e.g., Web sites of politically active NPOs, women’s groups, popular culture organs, etc.)--U.S. libraries should harvest useful Web resources to be preserved.  A good coordination would be required in order to avoid duplicate efforts and provide continuity for future projects--technical and legal.  For selection of resources, scholars specializing in specific subject areas should be heavily involved.

6 2) Providing more convenient access to Japanese language newspaper materials JPAC’s recommendations:  Some issues have been discussed by DRC; possible negotiation for group discounts for libraries in consortium? A cooperative service system for newspaper articles should be established—for locating relevant citations and delivering documents.  A union list database of newspapers held by North American libraries—c.f., NDL’s Zenkoku Shinbun Sogo Mokuroku Detabese 全国新聞総合目録データベース.  An indexing tool for newspaper articles published in specialized newspapers—c.f., Kyoto University’s Senzen Nihon Zaiju Chosenjin Kankei Shinbun Kiji Sakuin 戦前日 本在住朝鮮人関係新聞記事索引.

7 3) Serving as a clearinghouse for Japanese government reports JPAC’s recommendations:  Efforts should be made to secure and improve access to selected types of government documents of primary importance that are identified by specialists  Fee based services: National Printing Bureau provides Kanpo full text database service; Government Data Research Center of Japan ( 政府資料等普及調査会 ) provides GIOSS (Government Information Online Service System) net and copy services. If there is sufficient demand for accessing these databases in North America, NCC should inquire their availability and negotiate licensing agreements if necessary for potential users in North America.

8 4) Promoting the digitization of rare holdings and making them accessible on the Web JPAC’s recommendations:  For digitization, it would be important to develop common standards for how to describe, digitize, and index documents in Japan and North America. NCC can play a major role to establish such standards with Japanese counterparts.  In order to avoid duplicate efforts, a system to keep on track of relevant digitization projects managed by North American institutions and make the information available to anyone interested should be established.

9 September 2003 NCC’s recommendations:  A new project not be recommended immediately, but further research be undertaken in several areas.  For Japanese government documents, to provide the NCC with further background on these needs the NCC invite to the January Meeting Professor Lawrence Repeta, Abe Fellow at the National Security Archive, George Washington University, and a founding member of the Information Clearinghouse Japan.  The project name be shortened to “Japan Project.”  A standing Japan Project Advisory Committee (JPAC) be created.

10 January 2004  Professor Lawrence Repeta gave the Council a presentation, “Accessing Government Documents through Japan’s New Information Disclosure Law.”  JPAC Phase I was disbanded in December  JPAC Phase II membership was discussed and will be finalized soon.

11 Please send comments and suggestions for future Japan Project initiatives to: Toshie Marra Or Victoria Bestor Victoria Bestor