NCC News: News

Specialist Spotlight: Fabiano Takashi Rocha

Through our Specialist Spotlight series we periodically shine a spotlight on librarians and information specialists who are often behind the scenes working to support students, faculty, and staff. Whether you’re in the classroom to learn or teach or are conducting research near or far, these hardworking individuals make Japanese Studies possible.

We are pleased to shine our Specialist Spotlight this month on Fabiano Takashi Rocha, Japan Studies and Luso-Brazilian Studies Librarian at the University of Toronto Libraries. With capabilities in Japanese and Portuguese library resources as well as cataloging and metadata services, Rocha has built a career dedicated to library and information science contributing to research and teaching resources to academic communities in and beyond North America.

Rocha began his journey into the Japan Studies world with a Bachelor’s degree in Japanese from the University of British Columbia (2001), which he followed with a Master’s of Library and Information Science at UBC in 2003. Already certain of his plans to contribute to the librarianship field, Rocha began work as a Japanese Cataloger at the University of Toronto Libraries the following year, spending three years providing reference, instruction, research guide support, cataloging expertise, and more for Japanese-, Spanish-, and Portuguese-language materials. Given his diverse linguistic skill set, he then became interim Luso-Brazilian Studies Librarian in 2007 before taking up the role officially in 2008, simultaneously becoming the Japan Studies Librarian in 2007. Rocha has used these dual roles to assist and collaborate with faculty, students, and staff at Toronto ever since.

In addition, Rocha has been active in publishing both single-authored and co-authored articles on information resources. These include reports on critical professional development opportunities for Japan Studies information specialists, such as those on the Junior Japanese Studies Librarian Training Workshop (2012), the Librarian Exchange Program (2009), and the Japan Foundation-National Diet Library partner program (2006) and on essential services for colleagues and patrons, such as the accessibility of JapanKnowledge (2016) and strategies for maintaining collections development and acquisitions during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic (2020). More recently, he has been working closely with Japanese Canadian materials, publishing a book chapter on “Preserving the Growing Collection of Japanese Canadian Redress Materials at the University of Toronto Libraries” in Beyond the Book: Unique and Rare Primary Sources for East Asian Studies Collected in North America (2022) and serving as project lead for the Japanese Canadian Researchers Directory & Bibliography, a digital reference tool used to increase the visibility of Japanese Canadian researchers and works associated with them.

Outside of these numerous contributions to librarianship and information resources, Rocha is actively engaged with the Japanese Canadian community in Toronto. He has been volunteering as a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians in January 2021. He continues to maintain the Japanese Canadian Researchers Directory & Bibliography, and most recently, he has been involved with the organization of Kokoro: Films for the Heart, Mind & Spirit - an event in which “panel discussions will explore themes of identity and generational perspectives” with screenings of films by several Japanese Canadian filmmakers. He has been working with filmmakers and distributors in securing screening permissions for the films featured in the event. The event will be held July 20 and 21, 2024 at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Rocha also has a robust record of service within the NCC. He has participated in or chaired Council on East Asian Libraries committees related CJK Resources, technical processing, romanization, fundraising and more. As part of NCC, Rocha has served on the Information Literacy Resources Portal Task Force (2007-2012), Digital Resources Committee (2008-2012, chairing from 2016-2019), and Librarian Professional Development Committee (2008-2012). He has also been an elected Council Member (2010-2013; 2016-2019), been Chair of the Image Use Protocol Working Group (2010 to present), Co-chaired the Librarian Professional Development Working Group (2012 to present), and is currently the NCC Chair, a position he has held since 2022 and will occupy until 2025. These are only a selection of copious contributions, which we are sure will continue for many years to come!