On September 7, a training session hosted by the Public University Library Association was held in Kyoto. I was invited to stand as a speaker for a case study report. There were about 50 to 60 attendees, I believe. Library staff and faculty members from public universities participated, ranging from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south. Some private universities in the Kansai region also participated.

The keynote lecture was delivered by Professor Takashi Koga of Tenri University. He spoke about the significance of libraries within Japanese universities as a whole from the perspectives of library and information science and information policy, and discussed his own practical experiences, such as writing classes, which he conducted during his time at Kyoto University. However, Professor Koga also pointed out the issue that libraries must think about how to effectively promote their significance within the university, including learning support and classes, as he himself has been doing.

Case study reports were presented by myself and Ms. Makoto Inoue of Doshisha University. In my report, I presented the case of Kanazawa University and explained that it is important to view learning in a more expanded sense. I argued that if there is a current situation where collaboration with university courses is not explicitly established, supporting informal learning—for example, qualitatively expanding information literacy courses that libraries have excelled at, supporting events like Bibliobattle, or designing job-hunting support events—can sufficiently be considered university learning support. Every university library emphasizes writing support, but I feel that in order to provide writing support, such university-wide cooperation and consensus are necessary. It is about defining how to contribute to, for example, general education, and getting it approved within the university, as university libraries in Hong Kong and Singapore do. I think this is quite difficult for university libraries in Japan. Partnering with internal departments like university education centers is one option, but since the workload of recent university education centers is intense, it is necessary to collaborate in a way that creates a win-win relationship.

I also think it is necessary to listen more to the voices of students and faculty. I believe it would be good to conduct a university-wide survey for current situation analysis to see what kind of students are there and what is being requested. It might also be good to be invited as an observer to the educational committees of each department to hear about the goals and issues of each department, and then discuss what the library as a “place of learning” can do in response. Of course, I think there are quite a few faculty members who think, “A library should just be a place to study quietly by oneself!” but we should listen to those voices as well (since there should be diverse students, there are learning commons and learning support to accept diverse students and as a place to learn, and I do not deny that such students exist, and a place where one can study silently alone is also necessary). When Professor Yamauchi from the University of Tokyo had a dialogue with our university’s library director, Professor Shibata, I believe he mentioned something to the effect that “a space like a cave where one can seclude oneself is also necessary,” and I think that is exactly what it is.

Also, I hear that the number of university staff members aspiring to go to graduate school is increasing recently. I am sometimes asked, “Professor, what kind of graduate schools are there that research what you are doing?” or “In what research field can I learn what you are doing?” I realize that interest is growing. I introduced several graduate schools to such staff members. At present, I don’t think there is a system in universities to support such highly conscious staff members, but since the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) also seems to place importance on fostering the learning support capabilities of library staff, it may change in future developments.

Ms. Inoue is energetic. There were many staff members who nodded along to her talk from the perspective of a staff member. Doshisha University is energetic, after all. It seems Ms. Inoue is energetically working on PBL support and dissemination, and designing learning commons to support PBL. A fairly large, new learning commons is scheduled to be completed in 2013, and it was something exciting. There are not many super staff members like Ms. Inoue who learn learning theory through self-study and use it for class practice, but she is definitely a key person, and I think she is reforming the consciousness of Japanese libraries and, furthermore, library staff, and cheering them up. I also learned from her. Thank you very much. I would like to discuss with her again.

I myself also learned a lot. I am grateful to Professor Koga and Ms. Inoue. I would also like to visit the learning commons of other universities. Including those overseas. Hong Kong and Singapore were amazing… I felt overwhelmed. I would like to visit places like Canada. And I hope to have opportunities to discuss with interested faculty, staff, and students.

Article by Ms. Makoto Inoue, Doshisha University (Shinken Ad Between, June/July 2012 issue)
http://shinken-ad.co.jp/between/backnumber/pdf/2012_06_tokubetsu01.pdf

A dialogue at the Kanazawa University Learning Commons has been published on the Web
http://mark-lab.net/?p=270