Japanese Digital Resources: Home

[November 12, 2018] -- Crossing the Divide: An American Dream Made in Occupied Japan, 1945-1952.  [University of Maryland's online exhibit]

https://www.lib.umd.edu/crossing-the-divide

[September 27, 2018] -- Kyushu University Library, Japan, makes its digitized images of public domain materials openly available from October 2018.

So you will be able to reuse them freely at no charge, including any modifications and commercial uses, without any advance application.

Announcement (including examples):

https://www.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/news/19475 [in English]

https://www.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/ja/news/19475 [in Japanese]

[September 20, 2018] -- Introducing a portal website for digital collections of Japanese special holdings of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley: http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/UCB/. The portal has been recently made available by the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

The portal currently includes the following digital collections:

Old and Rare Books 古典籍: A small selection from the Library’s Edo printed books and manuscripts collections, mostly from the Mitsui collection acquired in 1950. The collection includes the links to digital images of 760 titles in the Database of Pre-Modern Japanese Works provided by the National Institute’s Japanese Literature.

Copperplate Prints 銅版画: Consists of ca. 2,400 individual prints produced in Japan between 1855 and 1920, distributed in various formats. The collection originally owned by Mitsui Takakata (1867-1945). 

Sugoroku Sheets 双六: Consists of ca. 150 sugoroku sheets produced in Japan in the Edo through the Taisho periods. The collection originally owned by Mitsui Takakata (1867-1945). 

Fine Art Auction Catalogs 美術品入札目録: A small selection from the Library’s art auction catalog collection printed during the Meiji through the Showa periods, mostly from the Mitsui collection.

[May 2017] -- Doing Digital Scholarship in Japanese Studies: Innovations and Challenges

The University of Toronto Libraries, in conjunction with the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC), hosted the Doing Digital Scholarship in Japanese Studies: Innovations and Challenges  workshop on March 13 and 14, 2017. Please visit http://guides.nccjapan.org/torontodigital to have access to the video recording of the presentations, examples of digital projects, a list of useful tools, as well as additional resources.

The NCC’s Digital Resources Committee (DRC) is a database and digital scholarship liaison and support group for North American libraries and their users. We work to facilitate better digital and electronic access to Japanese information, and wider utilization of digital tools and electronic resources in traditional and digital scholarship on Japan.

The focus of our activities are to:

• Keep the community informed about the availability of electronic resources
• Keep the libraries and librarians informed about the ongoing negotiation efforts by individuals or groups within the community
• Advocate for better and sustainable contract terms that include perpetual access, consortia options, pricing
• Work with vendors and database providers to improve the quality of metadata
• Provide end-user focused services, including educating users on navigation and use of Japanese databases
• Establish best practices for developing Japanese studies digital projects
• Support Japan-related digital scholarship interests and initiatives

NOTE: The NCC's DRC cannot act as "go-between" for your library and a vendor to negotiate licensing. We can, however, help you better understand the licensing process and the database creators involved.

This guide is a directory to digital resources vendors and agents in Japan prepared by the Digital Resources Committee (DRC) of the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources, the NCC.

The guide lists major databases currently available and cross references by the key vendors of each database product.
 
The DRC provides information useful to institutions that wish to subscribe to Japanese databases.

If you are here to find user guides and/or tips on a particular database, please try the Subject Guides Portal or Search box below.

Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa, Head, Asian Library, University of British Columbia

Lawrence Hamblin, Japanese Studies Librarian, Emory University

Katherine Matsuura, Japan Digital Scholarship Librarian, Harvard University

Yukari Sugiyama, Japanese Technical Services Librarian, Yale University

Ayako Yoshimura, Japanese Studies Librarian, University of Chicago

Ryuta Komaki (co-chair), Japanese & Korean Studies Librarian​, Washington University in St. Louis

Fabiano Rocha ​(chair), Japan Studies Librarian, University of Toronto