Library and Information Science Education in Japan
Abstract
As of 1995, 264 Japanese colleges and universities, including junior colleges, offered a varying number of courses of librarianship, with most of them providing nineteen credit courses, as prescribed by the Library Law. This paper reviews the historical background and current trends of library and information science education in Japan. It also analyzes the various types of curriculum and the teaching staff of these institutions, while identifying the factors influencing library and information science education. In conclusion, it mentions some of the present issues of the library and information science education system and discusses its future tasks and prospects.
I. Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current status of library and information science education in Japan, and to examine the implications of the rapid growth of this field, while noting some of its significant issues and problems.
The goal of library and information science education is to improve the quality of information services and to assure an adequate supply of library and information science professionals. Because library and information science schools prepare students for a professional career, their curricula must encompass elements of both education and practical training. This is often expressed as a contrast between theory and practice. The confluence of the social, economic, and technological realities of the environment where the learning takes place affects both. The process in Japan has been an evolutionary one that had its beginnings around the turn of the century and showed signs of maturity in the 1950s.
Prior to 1951, library education in Japan was paraprofessional in scope and content. The Japan Library Association began a two–week course for library personnel in 1903. This was followed by the University of Tokyo (Tokyo Imperial University) when, in 1917, it first offered lectures in librarianship. However, the training of librarians did not gain momentum until 1921, when the Ministry of Education established the Training Institute for Librarians and offered a one–year training program for high school graduates. The institute was renamed the National Junior College for Librarianship in 1954. Toyo University’s Department of Sociology was another forerunner. It has offered courses in librarianship since 1950.
What we would call the formal, professional education of librarians, however, began in 1951 at the Japan Library School, today’s School of Library and Information Science at Keio University. This was the first comprehensive, university–level program for librarians in Japan. The School began under the auspices of the American Library Association.
Closely following Keio University’s program was that of Kyoto University, which also began offering librarianship courses in 1951. Its program was based in the Faculty of Education. The Faculty of Education of Tokyo University started a similar program in 1953. Both of these institutions provide undergraduate and graduate courses.
Further progress was made in the late 1960s when the Keio University’s library school added a two–year master’s program in 1967, with a curriculum that placed more emphasis on “information”. Keio University similarly revised its undergraduate curriculum in 1968 and added the words “Information Science” to the name of its library school. In 1975, the school introduced a doctoral program, the first in Japan, to educate highly qualified personnel for research, education, and other professional positions in the field of library and information. Its curriculum emphasized research as well as service.
Another significant development in library education occurred in 1979 when the National Junior College for Librarianship became the University of Library and Information Science. While called a university, it is a college in the American sense. Still, it is the only independent, national institution of higher education devoted solely to library and information science. It offers a four–year program leading to a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree (Gakugei gakushi), and, since 1984, additional course work for a master’s degree. Other Japanese universities continued to offer degree programs in librarianship. Chuo University and Aichi Shukutoku University formed library and information science departments in 1981 and 1985 respectively. One of the most recent is Surugadai University which, in 1994, opened a Faculty of Cultural Information Resources. Its purpose was to stimulate and promote research in additional fields of information science by offering professional training in archival science, record management, and museum curatorship, as well as librarianship. In addition to the above–named universities’ offering comprehensive programs, more than 200 colleges and universities, including junior colleges, offer a varying number of courses in librarianship. However, most of these schools offer a very limited number of traditional library science courses.
II. The Legal Qualifications of Librarians
As mentioned above, the goal of library and information science education is to produce qualified librarians. According to Japan’s Library Law, enacted in 1950 and revised in 1985 and 1996, qualified, or professional, librarians are classified as librarian (shisho) or assistant librarian (shishoho). The requisite qualifications are these:
Article 4: The professional staff is called librarian (shisho) or assistant librarian (shishoho).
The librarian should engage in professional work. The assistant librarian should assist the librarian.
Article 5: Qualifications of librarians and assistant librarians.
A person is qualified as a librarian provided one of the following conditions is met:
(1) a graduate of a university or technical college who has completed a training program stipulated in Article 6 of the Law
(2) a graduate of a university who has taken courses in library science offered by the university
(3) a person with work experience as an assistant librarian for more than three years (including staff of the National Diet Library, and university librarians who are equivalent to assistant librarians) who has completed a training program stipulated in Article 6
A person is qualified as an assistant librarian provided one of the following conditions is met:
(1) a person with qualifications for librarian
(2) a graduate of a high school who has completed a training program stipulated in Article 6
Article 6: Training program for librarians and assistant librarians.
A training program for librarian and assistant librarian is given by universities in compliance with the request by the Minister of Education.
Courses, credit units, and other necessary matters should be specified by ordinance of the Ministry of Education. However, a minimum of nineteen units should be acquired.
The Ministry of Education governs the qualifications and education of librarians and certifies the levels of librarians and assistant librarians as they meet the conditions indicated in the Library Law.
In addition to professional qualifications, librarians working for national and public libraries must pass civil service examinations for public official status. Teacher–librarians (shisho–kyoyu) must also meet the qualifications set forth in the Library Law. Graduates who have teachers’ certificates and have taken selected courses at a university or college are entitled to a shisho–kyoyu certificate as well.
III. Library and Information Science Education
1. Educational Institutions
While many of Japan's 264 colleges, universities, and junior colleges offer instruction in a limited number of traditional library science subjects, most of them can provide nineteen credit courses prescribed by the Library Law. (See Table 1.) There are nine four–year universities with departments of library and information science. There are five master’s degree programs and three doctoral programs. (See Table 2.)
Table 1: Educational Institutions for Library and Information Science
| Full Program | Certificate Program | Others | |
| University | |||
| National | 4 | 11 | 22 |
| Municipal | – | 4 | 2 |
| Private | 5 | 93 | 10 |
| Junior College | |||
| Municipal | – | 3 | – |
| Private | – | 99 | 7 |
| Correspondence | |||
| Private U. | – | 4 | – |
| Total | 9 | 214 | 41 |
Source: Japan Library Association, Education of Library and Information Science in Japan 1995.
Table 2: BA and Master’s and Ph.D. Programs
| Name of Institution | Min. required credit | Start Year | No. cert. received | year opened | graduate | ||
| lib. | School Lib | M. | Ph.D. | ||||
| Tokyo U. | 19 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1953 | 65 | 65 |
| Kyoto U. | 19 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1951 | – | |
| ULIS | 28 | 1 | 1980 | 84 | |||
| Osaka E. | 23 | 8 | 2 | 60 (80) | 1950 | ||
| Keio U. | 52 | 52 | 2 | 45 (2) | 1951 | 67 | 75 |
| Chuo U. | 26 | 10 | 2 | 36 (9) | 1981 | 95 | |
| Toyo U. | 34 | 20 | 1 | 57 (12) | 1950 | – | |
| Aichi Shukutoku | 26 | 1 | 1985 | 89 | 91 | ||
| Surugadai U. | 32 | 2 | 1994 | ||||
Source: Japan Library Association, Education of Library and Information Science in Japan 1995.
According to the survey conducted by the Japan Library Association in 1995, the nation’s 264 institutions offering courses in librarianship produced over 10,000 “qualified” librarians annually.
2. Curriculum
Education for librarians in Japan has been provided at different levels. Students are required to complete no fewer than 124 credits over four years and submit a thesis in their final semester for a bachelor of arts degree. Students in a library and information science department receive a bachelor of either arts or art and science, along with a certificate of “qualified librarian” upon request.
Table 3: B.A. Curriculum
University of Library and Information Science
| Category | Minimum | Remarks |
| 1. Foreign Language courses — | 12 credits | |
| 1st Foreign Language: | 8 credits | |
| 2nd Foreign Language: | 4 credits | |
| 2. Health and Physical Education courses — | 4 credits | |
| Lecture: | 2 credits | |
| Physical Exercise: | 2 credits | |
| 3. Core Requirements — | 90 credits | Core requirements should number at least forty credits. To this are added credits from the chosen Major module (i.e., either Information Management or Information Systems) which include an Undergraduate Thesis worth eight credits. Altogether, the Core and Major credits should total ninety. |
| 4. Major Subjects | ||
| 5. General Education courses (i.e., natural, social, and humanistic studies) and others — | 18 credits | General Education courses are not compulsory, but the University advises students to select from this area. Therefore, the total of eighteen credits may be accumulated from (a) the General Education courses alone; (b) a combination of General Education courses and various courses selected from Cat. 1–4; or (c) categories selected only from Cat. 1–4. |
| Total number of credits | 124 |
Source: University of Library and Information Science, 1997
The University Standards Association of Japan (Daigaku Kijun Kyokai) issued “Standards for Education for Librarianship” in 1954 (now called “Standards for Education in Library and Information Science). They call for thirty–eight units of professional courses to be distributed as follows:
- (1) Basic foundation courses — a minimum of six units from such areas as introduction to library and information science, history of libraries, society and libraries, and development of science.
- (2) Media and use courses — a minimum of eight units from such areas as information media, reference materials, and information use and needs studies. An internship (experiment or practice) is required.
- (3) Organization of information courses — a minimum of eight units from such areas as organization of information, classification and cataloging, information retrieval, and information transfer technology. An internship (experiment or practice) is required.
- (4) Information Systems Courses — a minimum of eight units from such areas as information systems, systems management, library buildings, and library automation. An internship (experiment or practice) is required.
In addition to the professional courses, electives may be taken from related subjects in the humanities, or the social, natural, or applied sciences, such as philosophy, logic, linguistics, literary history, education, sociology, management, mathematics, physiology, psychology, or information engineering.
Table 4–1: Curricula of Qualifying Education for Librarians
Library Law Article 5 (1968.3.29 Revised) (1968.4 – 1998.3)
| Qualification | Compulsory Subjects | Elective Subjects |
| Introduction to Library (2) | Materials for Young adults (1) | |
| Library Sources (2) | History of Book & Library (1) | |
| Librarian | Reference Work (2) | Library Building & Equipment (1) |
| Reference Work: Practice (1) | Organization of Materials (1) | |
| Cataloging (2) | Information Management (1) | |
| Cataloging: Practice (1) | (Select 2 subj) | |
| Classification (2) | Social Education (1) | |
| Classification: Practice (1) | Social Survey (1) | |
| Library work (2) | Bib. Humanities & Social Sci.(1) | |
| Total: 15 credits | Bib. Natural Science & Tech (1) | |
| Mass Communication (1) | ||
| Audiovisual Education (1) | ||
| (Select 2 subj) | ||
| Total: 2 credits |
Table 4–2: Curricula of Qualifying Education for Librarians
Library Law Article 5 (1996.8.28 Revised) (1997.4 – )
| Qualification | Compulsory Subjects | Elective Subjects |
| Introduction to Life–long Education (1) | History of Book & Library (1) | |
| Librarian | Introduction to Library (2) | Organization of Materials (1) |
| Library Management (1) | Communication (1) | |
| Library Services (2) | Information Technology (1) | |
| Introduction to Information Services (2) | Library Work (1) | |
| Reference Work: Practice (1) | (Select 2 subj) | |
| Information Retrieval Practice (1) | Total: 2 credits | |
| Library Materials (2) | ||
| Special Materials (1) | ||
| Introduction to Materials Organization (2) | ||
| Materials Organization Practice (1) | ||
| Children’s Service (1) | ||
| Total: 18 credits |
Table 5: Librarian: Requirements for Qualification
| No. Credit | University | Junior College |
| 19 | 22 | 39 |
| 20 | 6 | 4 |
| 21 | 8 | 10 |
| 22 | 4 | 4 |
| 23 | 16 | 4 |
| 24 | 3 | 22 |
Source: Japan Library Association, Education of Library and Information Science in Japan 1995.
Table 6: School Librarian: Requirements for Qualification
| No. Credit | University | Junior College |
| 8 | 32 | 32 |
| 10 | 6 | 6 |
| 12 | 13 | 16 |
| 13 | 2 | 1 |
| 14 | 14 | 7 |
| 15 | 1 | 1 |
| 16–20 | 19 | 2 |
| 21–25 | 4 | 11 |
| 26–30 | – | 3 |
| 30– | 4 | – |
Source: Japan Library Association, Education of Library and Information Science in Japan 1995.
3. The Faculty
It is generally agreed that no matter how good the goals, the curriculum, and the physical facilities of an educational institution, the fundamental excellence of a program depends upon the quality of its faculty. Currently, Japan has 491 full–time and 794 part–time faculty in 264 universities. Their teaching load is heavy and the faculty find little time for research and professional development. The universities face a shortage of qualified teachers in the field of information science. As a result, many students graduate with gaps in their education. The minimum academic credential for faculty in Library and Information Science used to be the master’s degree in the field. Professional library or information field experience was not required.
4. Students
One measure of the success of professional education is the number of graduates entering the profession. The Ministry of Education’s Library Law produces approximately 10,000 “qualified” librarians yearly. Summer training workshops, recognized by the Library Law as qualifying education, produce an additional 1,000 librarians.
Table 7: Number of Certificates Received
| Number of Certificates Received | Librarian | Teacher–Librarian | ||||
| Univ | Junior College | Training Program | Univ | Junior College | Training Program | |
| 1–25 | 21 | 15 | – | 59 | 51 | – |
| 26–50 | 34 | 27 | 4 | 11 | 6 | – |
| 51–75 | 22 | 23 | – | 4 | 1 | – |
| 76–100 | 5 | 14 | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| 101–125 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | – | – |
| 126–150 | 5 | 1 | 4 | – | – | – |
| 151– | 1 | 2 | 1 | – | – | – |
| No. of Schools | 91 | 85 | 10 | 77 | 59 | |
Source: Japan Library Association, Education of Library and Information Science in Japan 1995.
Only 3 to 4 percent of all qualified graduates find employment in libraries. The remainder are employed in other fields. This low rate of professional employment in the field for which students have studied clearly implies that there should be careful planning to limit the number of graduates having similar qualifications and competencies.
IV. Issues and Problems
Despite progress in educating librarians and information specialists, Japan faces several problems in library and information science education. Three of the major areas are summarized below.
1. Curriculum development
Educators recognize that their primary responsibility is to modernize the library science education curriculum to meet the needs of an information society, and to equip students with the skills needed to meet the challenges of this new society.
While more than 260 Japanese universities, colleges, and junior colleges offer some kind of library science course, the number of subjects taught is limited. Course offerings barely meet the government requirements for certification of professional librarians or teacher–librarians. These minimal requirements are lower than in other developed countries of the world. The number of information–related courses offered in colleges and universities will be increased, but these courses will be concentrated more in computer science and business administration than in library science.
The Standards for Education in Library and Information Science, while accepted in principle by the profession, lack the necessary legal force for application. It is crucial for the library profession in Japan to define the evolving responsibilities of information professionals in an information society, and to agree upon the requirements for qualifying specialists in a rapidly changing field.
2. Qualified Teachers
Most library and information science courses offered in Japan are at the undergraduate level. Only five universities offer graduate programs. Doctoral programs are available at only three universities and the number of students enrolled is very limited. Library and information science faculty are not required to have professional library experience and many are not familiar with information technology. Even so, qualified faculty are few in number and the demands for qualified teachers will increase in the future as the pressures for an information–oriented education become greater.
3. Employment of Graduates
Japanese universities currently produce approximately 10,000 new librarians every year. This oversupply creates a serious problem for the profession as well as for the schools and their students. In fact, the scarcity of job opportunities for graduates is the most serious problem in the field. Education of information professionals should be based upon the manpower needs of the profession. More specifically, the content of library and information science programs and the number of students enrolled in them should be based upon a thorough survey of the manpower needs of society. Along with the evaluation of manpower needs, the qualification for certified librarians needs to be reformulated.
Unfortunately, over–production of certified “professional” librarians will continue and there is little chance for raising the qualifications for certification in the near future. Graduates of library and information science programs can be expected to continue seeking jobs in business and industry after graduation. The schools, however, should try to equip their students with the skills and knowledge for solving the employment problems inherent in this type of job market.
V. Conclusion
As our society becomes increasingly information intensive, the need for information professionals is correspondingly greater. Demand for information professionals in all subject fields is growing. The success of a national policy for meeting the needs of an information society very much depends upon the professional education of library and information science graduates. Determining what skills will be needed by future information professionals, ensuring that excellent students are recruited and well educated, and providing continuing education for this rapidly changing field are all important challenges for library and information science educators.
Education does not take place only in the classroom. Practica, field experiences, internships, and on–the–job training are essential parts of the educational process. Expanding continuing education programs will also be needed to ensure that practitioners will be able to keep up with the rapid changes in the field.
It is clear that digital information can be more effective for the users and cheaper for information professionals. Access will become more important than possession. But this must be used to encourage sharing, not competition. We need professionals who can function not only in existing library and information environments, but who can also design, build, and manage new digital information systems and services from a human–centered perspective.
As we move toward more sophisticated, integrated, multimedia information services, information professionals will need to work more closely with colleagues in other specialties. It will become essential to the survival of the information professions for librarians to work with archivists, record managers, and museum curators. Managing the changes in our increasingly information–intensive society demands strong coalitions among staff members of cultural institutions. To provide our future colleagues with these competencies will require building and strengthening partnerships within and across the information professions and across national borders.
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About the author
Yong Won Kim is Associate Professor, Faculty of Cultural Information Resources, Surugadai University, Japan