Library secures collection of Japanese books

Recently, a collection of 100 books about Japanese culture was received by the GCSU library as a gift. Professor of Library Science Bill Richards, who is the collection development librarian, knows a lot about the new collection.

“I wrote the proposal to have these books sent here, but we received them mainly because we are so driven by our liberal arts mission which means we have a large desire for internationalization. We also received them because we are in a fairly remote location and don’t have access to a library larger than this one,” Richards said.

The collection covers a wide spectrum of topics related to Japanese culture like books on business, history and literature. There is even a book about the art of Japanese film.

“One of the great things about this collection is that the books were chosen by Japanese experts from the Nippon foundation,” Richards said.

The Nippon Foundation is based in Tokyo and began the project called “100 Books for Understanding Contemporary Japan” because it felt that many countries do not know a lot about Japanese culture. It has posted an application on its Web site for any university around the world that wishes to receive the collection, from which it carefully choose those eligible.

So, what is the appeal of a Japanese collection over a collection from any other country?

“The fact is that we have a lot to learn from the Japanese, they have made a lot of smart decisions and are a stronger country because of it,” Richards said.

There are four Japanese language courses at GCSU and, according to Richards, there are several professors who are very excited about what the new collection has to offer.

“Professor of History Dr. John Fair is very interested in Japanese culture. He attended a seminar in California about the incorporation of Japanese history into traditional history classes,” Richards said.

Professor of English Dr. Pete Carriere sent Richards an e-mail message expressing his delight about the new collection.

“This is great! I’ll be teaching a Maymester course in Japanese Literature this May, so this gift,” the e-mail said. “If it’s forthcoming, will certainly come in handy!!!”

The collection is spread throughout the library and those interested in the books can visit the GCSU library’s Web site and type in the keywords: “Nippon Foundation.”

The books in the collection should then appear together on the screen.

“If we could have a collection like this for all of the countries in the world that are world leaders, we would truly have a great collection that reflects our global society,” Richards said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 20 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry