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The Japanese describe themselves as a “nation of readers”. This is not incorrect if you look at the history of reading in Japan, which dates back to the 5th century, when the Chinese writing system arrived in this country. The Japanese gradually adapted it to their own language. The creation of the kana syllabic alphabet enabled the flourishing of literature, and thus the copying activities, especially at the Japanese imperial court. The monks in the temples were also engaged in copying Buddhist texts, but they were the first to accept printing with wooden blocks, which arrived from China. Over time, the printing of books of various genres began. Itinerant merchants and numerous bookstores where books were also rented, tried to satisfy the hunger for reading of all social classes. The book market grew more and more, and the real reading revolution came with the period of intensive modernization of the country in the second half of the 19th century, when Japan made all its efforts to reach and overtake Western models. Publishing, as well as the developed library activity of modern society, rest on such foundations. The reading culture of today’s Japan is reflected in the number of published books, but also in the steady growth of the number of libraries, both public and special, as well as libraries within the educational system in Japan. Today, all segments that form that culture, such as education, printing, publishing and library activities, etc., adapt to the new era defined by globalization and digitalization progress. Although the impressive growth of the figures, which illustrate the size of the book and magazine market, has stopped in recent years, they still prove the fact that the Japanese are truly the “nation of readers”. Libraries also manage to keep up with new trends, so digital libraries appear on the Internet, while all others have available digital catalogs and reading materials. If we look back at the centuries-old attachment of the Japanese to books and reading, and if we look at the technologies we are surrounded by, it is clear to us that librarians are constantly faced with new challenges. Just as the copyist at the Japanese court supplied court ladies with the latest readings, the traveling merchant did his best to make the book reach the most remote mountain villages, the modern librarian also does his best to overcome all obstacles and meet the expectations of increasingly demanding library users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Problem-solving support services in Japan's public libraries offer users' problem-solving support by providing information in business, health and medical, legal, and administrative support. Though such services are quite welldeveloped in Japan's public libraries, there is little research on the information needs of local citizens who make use of these services. Objective. This study investigated the information seeking processes of two groups of library users--aspiring entrepreneurs and cancer patients--who used public libraries to attain their problem-solving goals. This study used an information behavioral grammar model as the theoretical framework. Method. Existing interview data of aspiring entrepreneurs and cancer patients were analyzed using the model, applying a constant-comparative method adopted from the grounded theory approach in order to elicit how problem-solving goal (distal goal) and information needs (proximal sub-goals) are modified in information seeking process. Results. The information behavioral grammar model was found to be useful for characterizing and explaining the change in the distal goal and the information needs for problem solving, together with the emotions of the actor that result in the change. Entrepreneurs and cancer patients use various external services before and after using the public library's problem-solving support service. Practical implications. It is desirable for public libraries to collaborate with external specialized organizations and professionals in offering user-training on library use, Web search, and specialized data base retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Information behavior has changed in recent years following the increase in economic activities 'based on access. Five types of information media use were categorized based on a previous study of ownership: ownership, quasi-ownership, and access types 1,2, and 3. Fo clarify the current trends in media use, we conducted a survey of the current uses of four types of media: novels, nonfiction books, comics, and music. The respondents were categorized based on their information media use. Methods: An online panel survey was conducted in Japan with 1,030 participants who were counterbalanced by gender and age. The questions consist of 30 items related to media use, 5 related to physical media orientation, 3 related to frequency of media use, 2 related to possession and use of computer devices, and 10 related to personality. Results: Of the 30 questions on media use, more than half of the respondents answered "never/don't know/no idea" to 27 questions. However, 41.9% of the respondents answered that they "very often/often" listen to music on free online video-sharing platforms such as YouTube. Seven clusters were identified based on hierarchical clustering from the answers for media use. The five clusters that indicated less use of information media were: "only YouTube, nonuser/'"library user," "music subscription user/' and "ownership." The two respondent clusters that used information media frequently were:"active user of all media" and "active user (mainly access type 3)." The characteristics of the clusters were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research examined the awareness of librarians, presidents and secretary generals regarding how-junior college libraries support education and research activities. Methods: Questionnaires were sent between June and September 2008 to the librarians, presidents and secretary generals of every junior colleges in Japan that has an independent library. The questionnaires contained 14 questions covering seven fields: 1) preservation and management of library materials, 2) interlibrary access, 3) enhancing library use, 4) introduction of online services, 5) educational activities by librarians, 6) learning and research support services by librarians and 7) library as a place. Valid responses were obtained from 146 librarians, 110 presidents and 124 secretary generals. Results: Librarians generally place greater importance on reference services in the field of learning and research support services than presidents and secretary generals, and place particular emphasis than secretary generals on the following six areas: 1) functions as an information center for external citizens in the area of preservation and management of library materials, 2) use of extramural libraries in the interlibrary access, 3) provision of web-OPAC services in the introduction of online services, 4) construction of library website in the introduction of online services, 5) library use education in the educational activities by librarians and 6) collection development in the learning and research support services. On the other hand, presidents are more interested in the functions of their library as an information center for citizens in the area of preservation and management of library materials and its open-door policy of library to the general public in enhancing library use than librarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Despite a growth in demand that public libraries be accountable to citizen needs, basic research into the socio-cultural context in which libraries operate, particularly cross-culturally, is still needed. Durrance and Fisher have argued that libraries have too long relied on output measures to indicate library efficiency (and to justify funding) but that such measures do not reflect the social, cultural or other values actually held or gained by library users. This observation begs the question, what socio-cultural functions do public libraries actually have? What values do they reinforce? What needs are met? How do public libraries fit into the larger social fabric of public and private institutions? And how might these functions vary from one society to another? This paper aims to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach - The questions are similar in scope to those found in museum studies (for example, see the book series Museum Meanings edited by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill and Flora Kaplan), but have been rarely applied to libraries. In an unusual research collaboration we explore these questions relying on both qualitative and quantitative methods to gauge some of the socio-cultural functions of a public library in Japan. Findings - Of primary concern is the methodological problem of developing questions that draw out values and concepts of which the visitors themselves may not be explicitly aware. In this research the paper attempts to draw out not just the satisfaction levels of patrons, but to delineate something of the patrons' own conception of their public library. Studying a rather unusual library by Japanese standards, it is found that some patrons have responded to the particularly strong community focus of the library director. Originality/value - Socio-cultural studies of the functions of libraries are rare. This study therefore can act as an exemplar for further international studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In Japan, 1,968 municipalities have merged between 1999 and 2005. It seems that this large-scale merging of cities, towns and villages had a great influence on the public libraries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the issues discussed at the time of the merger and to define the future issues of libraries in such merged municipalities. Methods: Questionnaires were sent out to main libraries of 483 municipalities that had merged into a single one respectively. Among them, 321 (66.5%) libraries responded the questionnaires, which are analysed in this paper. Results: The problem discussed most frequently at the time of merging is how the level of services can be adjusted between individual libraries after merging, e.g., adjustment of opening hours or library regulations for lending books. On the other hand, the issue of unifying library policies was not considered so much. These results show that the libraries have to give priority to issues on services that directly affect the users, because library staff didn't have enough time for discussion on them before the merger. The most common issue after the merger is to obtain enough budgets for purchasing library materials. Reorganization of the library is a future issue, too. Moreover, the libraries must consider how the service should be provided in geographic areas increased newly by the merger in a situation of severe fiscal limitations. To study more detailed library policies and organization in post merger of municipalities are also further research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]