JSIST 2004 Pages: December 15, 2004

Speaker: MINAMOTO Shin'ya and KAZU Chikako, Nara National Museum

Mr. Minamino, gave us an introductory lecture of the Nara National Museum.
Recently they have made efforts on developing digital resource of their collection with high vision image system, and upgrade their homepage. They offer online version of the Museum research journal for free access. They have placed a small library in the corner of the entrance level of the museum with a reference service for public users by providing basic art reference materials. I have observed their efforts to attract more younger visitors by offering educational information about Buddhist art in Nara.

Nara National Museum's Art Library: Ms. Kazu, librarian, gave us a tour of the library and the storage area. They hold most of materials published in Japan related to Japanese art and Buddhist art, manuscripts, and documents reports of restoration of temples. They have a very extensive collection of photos of Buddhist art and architectures. The library is open to public.

[Prepared by Keiko Yokota-Carter.]

The seminar consists of three presentations on document delivery services by representatives from the U.S.A., U.K., and Germany respectively, and a Q&A session.

Ms. Mary Jackson, Director of Collections and Access Programs, Association of Research Libraries, discussed 10 key trends that might play important roles in future document delivery services in a talk entitled "the Future of document delivery services." Mr. Mat Pfleger, Head of Sales and Marketing, British Library, in his talk "Vision and strategy: Document supply in the digital age," talked about the BL's ways to respond to provide the best possible resources for research to the changes that the document supply industry or the information industry are currently undergoing. Mr. Uwe Rosemann, Director of the German National Library of Science and Technology, University Library Hannover, introduced in his talk "Current trends in German library services: Subito and Vascoda" a document delivery service Subito, a project supported by BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research), with which requested materials are electronically delivered from 33 libraries to end-users in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland or to participating institutions, and Vascoda, a new portal for scientific information sponsored by BMBF and DFG (German Research Foundation), with which more than forty German institutions are working together to offer researchers a one-stop-shop for all scientific information in all document types, born-digital as well as digitized and print materials.

The Q&A session was led by Prof. Hiroshi Itsumura of Nagoya University.

For more information, please check: Karento Weanesu-E

[Prepared by Toshie Marra.]