LibGuides: Subject Guides Portal: Home

Start Researching Japan

Connect easily with the materials needed to study, learn, and conduct research. Libraries across North America and beyond host materials on Japan across a wide range of academic disciplines. Librarians provide research guides highlighting the strengths of these collections, and further enhance access to information with authoritative web sites, databases, and multimedia. The NCC Subject Guides Portal brings students, researchers, and librarians into contact with these invaluable guides.

For Undergraduates:

Learn about essential information sources in Japanese Studies.
Discover topics that interest you and grow academically through research.
Plan term papers and individual research projects using the vast range of sources referenced here.
Build necessary vocabulary to transition into Japanese only language materials.

For Scholars, PhD & Graduate Students:

Quickly connect with institutional libraries with collections relevant to your research.
Make serendipitous discoveries for cross-disciplinary research or in your specific field.
Annotations make clear what the scope of a research guide will be and if it's relevant to your needs.
Easily identify unique content.
Use these expertly created guides to find the best sources to launch a new project or expand an existing one.

For Librarians:

Connect members of your constituency with the materials they need.
Use these LibGuides as a template for your own.
If you are a smaller institutions without Japanese speaking staff these guides will connect you and your users with the Japanese Studies community for support.
Learn how to use new systems and databases to better serve your users.

Resources and annotations on the Subject Guides Portal emphasize ease of access. NCC does not control content on individual research guides. Be aware changes can occur without notice, each page on the guide includes a box for feedback where you can alert NCC to dead links or potential new resources.

The subject guides portal is the result of recommendations made at NCC's Third Decade (3D) Conference, held March, 2010.

How the Information is Organized:

(Guide Title) -- at (Hosting Institution)
--(Guide Creator)

Here follows a brief annotation about a guide's organization, what makes it unique, and how it may be helpful in conjunction with other guides. This format is how all annotated links are structured.

--Keywords that highlight a guide's UNIQUE topics

*The format for the entries in this guide is being upgraded to the new format below from an older one*

I found something useful, what next?

Be aware that each guide, first and foremost, is meant to best represent the needs of the faculty, students, and librarians at the parent institution. You may discover a useful database or reference book that would be very helpful, but these kinds of services are not typically available off site. In this situation you may need to visit the institution or locate another that offers the same materials or services.

In the case of printed books and some database articles, you can often have them brought to your institution via Interlibrary Loan or Document Delivery services. In the case of Interlibrary loan (ILL) the book can be mailed from it's host institution to yours so you may use it. Document Delivery (DD), a digital scan, or materials like journal articles that can be emailed to you as digital images, or copied and sent to you by mail.

Your library likely has a subscription to the database known as WorldCat FirstSearch. If not, there is a publicly accessible version at WorldCat.org. Here you can locate most materials at most libraries in North America. You will need the information from one of these two databases to make a formal ILL/DD request.

You will need to consult with your own library's staff on the specifics of making a request, as each library has different rules and policies related to ILL/DD.

If, based on your search of WorldCat, it turns out the materials are not available in North America you may be able to request books and documents using the Global ILL Framework, an international group of 245 institutions in North America and Japan that share resources.

I couldn't find anything! Now what?

If you haven't been able to find anything on this guide, NCC recommends the follow alternatives:

Library Staff, they are trained professionals in finding information, whether common or esoteric.

A LibGuide Search - many research guides are prepared via a content management system (CMS) known as LibGuides to help organize digital content. You can search by keyword and even by location, which is useful when proximity is a factor in finding research materials.