This section consists of materials contributed by the Japanese Library Resources Group of Australia (JALRGA) and other EALRGA members. To have your name added to the mailing list of the JALRGA Representative on the EALRGA Committee, please e-mail Eiko Sakaguchi at: Eiko.Sakaguchi@lib.monash.edu.au JAPANESE DATABASES IN/FROM AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALANDBelow are details of some Australian New Zealand libraries and the Japanese databases they subscribe to:
MISCELLANEOUS NEWS ITEMSWhite Papers The full-text version of White Papers - Communications in Japan 1998 by The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (MPT) is now available for the first time ever as a full-text version on Internet at Web page: http://www.mpt.go.jp/policyreports/japanese/papers/index-98wp.html Following the example set by the MPT (Yuseisho) in making the full-text white paper available at their Web page, the MITI (Tsusansho) also made their White Paper available at their Web page below: http://www.miti.go.jp/report-j/g8tusyoj.html (Index)http://www.miti.go.jp/report-j/g8yoshij.html (Summary) The content is an equivalent of 331 pages and the hardcopy will be available in early July at a cost of 1,580 yen. You must have a Japanese-capable browser to access to the page. Those people without it please come to the Menzies public computer (Japanese) at the Australian National University. Internet Hakusho 98 The book INTERNET HAKUSHO 98 was published on 10 June 1998 and is available at the cost of ¥4,800 + tax. See Web site below: http://www.impress.co.jp/release/19980601.html or http://www.ips.co.jp/book/4886/4886.htm Information Service Tsukuba University announced their Library digitized Information Public Service. It includes some full-text data. Full Text Data Materials Collected/Published by the Univ. of Tsukuba | Online Journal etc. http://www.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp/welcome.english.html | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Toshio Takagi Japanese Collection Librarian Asia Pacific, Menzies Building Library Australian National University email: Toshio.Takagi@anu.edu.au | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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New Microsoft browser enhancement Microsoft has come out with IME for Japanese and Korean language. This means that in addition to being able to read CJK with the Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 (NT and Win95), you can now INPUT vernacular into html search forms, do Outlook email, etc. Only Japanese and Korean are now available with Chinese GB and big-5 promised shortly. I've only briefly tried the Japanese and it seems to be a cut-down version of what is available in Japanese Windows. You will need the Internet Explorer fonts (I tried unsuccesfully to use Word97 CJK fonts). While Word 97 fonts will display with both Netscape and Internet Explorer , this new Microsoft IME seems to be workable only with the Microsoft browser fonts and only with the Microsoft browser (it pastes a new little icon on the status bar). Since the fonts and the input programs are free (as is Internet Explorer), the deal is rather hard to beat. Installation is easy. Just click on the downloaded file and it automatically uncorks and installs itself. The help file (in Japanese, Korean, or English) is inside the button (I believe "help" is on the far right of the three-segmented pop-up button) that appears when the input method is activated by clicking the new icon on your status bar. Remember that this is for Internet Explorer 4 (which is actually a better browser than Netscape 4). You can pick up the programs at the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/ime.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Robert Felsing felsing@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU March 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Congratulations Michelle Hall (Japanese Studies Librarian, University of Melbourne) completed a Graduate Diploma Information Technology in Information Management. Eiko Sakaguchi (Japanese Studies Librarian, Monash University) also finished a Master of Business Information Technology in Information Management. Both attended Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University. Michelle Hall was recently on leave and visited several libraries overseas, and will make a report for the next edition of the EALRGA newsletter. NATIONAL DIET LIBRARY STAFF SECONDMENTSince 1965 the National Library of Australia (NLA) has had a long-standing secondment arrangement with the National Diet Library (NDL) of Japan. During this time thirteen Japanese librarians have each spent up to three years working with the National Library of Australia's Japanese collection and services. They have been responsible for collection development, bibliographic control, and the provision of information services. The secondment has been a major factor in the National Library building up - in cooperation with the Australian National University (ANU) Library - the leading Japanese language research collections in Australia. In a report to ANU published in 1985, Mr Kazuhiko Shiraiwa, an NDL librarian who was at NLA between 1983 and 1985, stated "The Japanese collections of both libraries have gained the status of world-wide significance. Compared with the Japanese collections in the United States, both libraries rank in the group of medium-sized collections". As of mid-1998 the NLA held 99,000 volumes of monographs and 6,000 serial titles in Japanese. The secondment scheme has been an important part of the relationship between the Australian and Japanese national libraries, which also includes a major exchange of publications and close cooperation in Asia-Pacific and international library developments in areas such as preservation. The Diet Library staff who have returned to Japan from Australia call themselves jocularly the "Canberra Mafia". Several have now retired, but a recent email from Kaoru Nakajima, sets out the current work of her "Canberra Mafia" colleagues still at the NDL: "As for us, Mrs Kameda (Kuni) has been busy as director of the International Children's Library which will be open in 2000. Mr Nakano was appointed as chairperson for the Library's management reform committee last April. Mr Nasu is now Chief of the Domestic Books Department. Mr Shiraiwa is working for the International Cooperation Department. Keiko Harada is working for the Library's R & D section. I am still working for the Kansai-kan Project Office. The construction work for the Kansai-kan will begin this fall. Everyone is fine. Please say hello to everyone and give them our many, many thanks for their kind help and friendship over all these years." Retired members of the "Canberra Mafia" who have revisited Australia in recent years and caught up with former colleagues include Mr Tanaka, the first Japanese librarian to be seconded to NLA, and Mr Kawazoe. When Ms Minoru Inahama, the latest NDL staff member at NLA returns to Japan in mid-June, her replacement will be Ms Mayumi Shinozaki, an Australian librarian of Japanese origin, who lives in Canberra. This is in line with Australian government requirements that the position be advertised and filled locally. While the recruitment of a Japanese librarian locally will mean that for the time being there will not be an NDL staff member seconded to NLA, it is hoped that in future further staff secondments from NDL will be possible, as part of the continuing close relationship between the two national libraries. The NDL staff who have been seconded to NLA are:
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Andrew Gosling
National Library of Australia June 1998 |