The 104th All-Japan Library Conference (2018)

【2019-E001】

The 104th All-Japan Library Conference was held by the Japan Library Association (JLA) in the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) on October 19 and 20, 2018. 1,368 people participated in section meetings there. The conference theme this year was “Libraries Growing with People: The Power of Library Specialists.”

On the afternoon of the 19th, following the opening ceremony, the 34th Library Architecture Award ceremony and the keynote report, the symposium titled “Libraries Growing with People: The Power of Library Specialists” was held.

On the 20th, people were absorbed in the presentations and discussions of 20 section meetings, and visited exhibitions which were held during the conference. Each meeting covered different themes and library types.

The next conference will be held on 21 and 22 November in 2019, at the Mie Center for the Arts.

The contents of the meetings of the School Libraries Section and the Library and Information Science Education Section are as follows:

Section Meeting 4 (School libraries): Roles and Work of School Librarians

Midori Kanazawa, a professor at Toyo Eiwa University, gave the keynote speech titled “Roles and Work of School Librarians.” She explained the expected roles for school librarians based on case studies in the USA, such as promotion of active learning for active school libraries and making learning commons. According to her, personal interactions and everyday information exchange are required for school libraries to cooperate with social education facilities like public libraries. A public elementary school librarian then reported how she made her library into a place to enjoy learning. Then a public high school librarian described Inquiry-Based Learning, or “learning how to learn.” Participants engaged in a lively discussion about the important roles of school librarians and the expectations for them from boards of education.

Section Meeting 6 (Library and information science education): The New Training Program for Librarian Teachers and the Model Curriculum for School Librarians

In 2016, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology enacted the Model Curriculum for School Librarians, but the Training Course Rules for School Librarian Teachers has not been revised for more than 20 years, since 1998. In this section meeting, Yuji Hirakue, a professor at the University of Tsukuba, gave the keynote report on the future of training programs for librarian teachers, as school libraries’ roles and their related policies have been changing. Takenori Noguchi, a professor at Senshu University, indicated that the status of school libraries is still not clearly established in the training program for teachers. He suggested there should be a shared discussion on training for teachers, librarian teachers and school librarians. Yumiko Kasai, a professor at Tsurumi University, explained the difference in librarian teachers’ roles and their training curriculum between Japan and other countries. She spoke about accreditation and the international recognition of degrees and certifications, pointing out the institutional problems of librarian teacher training in Japan. There was then a lively discussion on librarian teacher training and the Japanese system of school librarians and librarian teachers.