A monthly look at life in the UK Libraries

December 2006

Conservation Librarian Presents in Japan
By Kazuko Hioki
In November 2006, I traveled to Japan to give talks on preservation and to visit several
preservation programs at the research libraries and archives. Here is a little about this trip.
I gave a talk entitled, “Preservation Program at the University of Kentucky Libraries:
Environmental Control Project and Disaster Planning“ for the employees at the National
Diet Library (NDL) in Tokyo (comparable to the Library of Congress). The NDL has the
biggest preservation program with 21 full time staff and in-house conservation labs in Japan,
while only a couple of libraries and archives have
preservation departments. (More than 58 research
libraries have preservation programs with full time
preservation staff in the U.S. ) Although the preservation
activities at the NDL have been focused on conservation
treatment of damaged items, its focus is expanding to
preventive measures. The NDL was particularly interested
in the environmental monitoring project and disaster
planning at the University of Kentucky Libraries. One of
the participants from the facility maintenance department
Presentation at the National
said that he was encouraged by the development of the
Diet Library in Tokyo.
close collaboration between the UK libraries’ preservation
department and physical plant staff, and he hoped to see
similar improvement at the NDL. In addition to 57 participants from the NDL in Tokyo, the
staff at the Kansai branch in Kyoto shared this talk via distance network.
When I first learned that even the prestigious Kyoto University Libraries (KUL) did not have
a preservation department with full time staff, I was stunned. (Kyoto University is
comparable to Harvard or Yale. The Harvard Libraries have 88 preservation staff!) A
librarian of the KUL asked me to join their book repair workshop. Eight to ten librarians
and staff meet voluntarily every Tuesday after work at 6 pm to learn book repair and other
preservation issues. None of them have formal preservation trainings, so they learn by
themselves from internet resources and printed manuals. This small group of people has to
take care of damaged library books and moldy storage books, although no library
employees are officially charged with any kind of preservation responsibilities. The only
noticeable preservation activities at the KUL are to send some special collections items to the
private conservation studios for treatment. The libraries do not have a budget or system to
use a library binding service to repair damaged general collections. The KUL’s situation is
not uncommon to the Japanese libraries.
The highlight of this trip was a visit to the Archives of the
Imperial House Agency. These Archives are originally
established in the 8th century, that collects, preserves, and
researches the Emperor’s official and historical documents.
They are located in the Imperial Palace, the residence of the
Emperor of Japan, which is on the ground of Edo Castle built
in 1457, but most of the buildings were lost to fires and
earthquakes.

Moat, Castle wall, and Nijyu
Bridge to Imperial Palace.
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