Research on Overseas Demand for Japanese Information Resources (research representative: Prof. Hitoshi INOUE, Deputy Director General, NACSIS), an international joint research project supported by the Scientific Research Fund, is completed a three-year period starting in 1995.

As part of this project, Ms Jane M. Thacker (Senior Standards Librarian, Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services Branch, National Library of Canada) and Mr. Ronald C. Jantz (Government and Social Sciences Data Librarian, Alexander Library, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA) were invited to visit NACSIS from March 9 though March 19 / March 17, 1998 respectively to exchange information on 1) how government information in digital / electronic form is provided in Canada, 2) how a university library addresses the Internet in the United States and to examine international exchange of information about Japan.

On March 10 at NACSIS, following a courtesy call to Dr. Hiroshi INOSE, Director General of NACSIS, Ms Thacker and Mr. Jantz saw NACSIS to review the scholarly information system concept and the latest developments in NACSIS services such as NACSIS-CAT, NACSIS-ELS, and the full-text database. On March 11. The two experts left for the International Seminar House in Karuizawa, where they gave presentations on government electronic information as well as scholarly information center concept in university at the International Seminar on Enforcement of Electronic Library Functions in University Libraries. On March 12, after touring the library of the International Christian University, a lecture meeting was held. During the morning of March 13, a technical visit was made to the National Diet Library. In the afternoon they participated in a public presentation given as part of the activities of the Scientific Research Fund of NACSIS. Approximately 40 people attended this event. The titles of their presentations were as follows:

Mr. Ronald C. Jantz

“Digital Libraries: Special Projects in the Scholarly Communication Center - Social Sciences Data Center and the Changing Role of Librarians”

Ms. Jane Thacker

“Challenges and Opportunities: Electronic Publications and the National Library of Canada”

On March 16, they gave presentations at the auditorium of the Kyoto University library to a group of 60 people attending the second lecture in the fiscal year 1997 sponsored by the Association of National University Libraries in the Kinki Region.

The texts of the three lectures given in Tokyo, Karuizawa and Kyoto were presented to the audience in both English and Japanese. The texts of the lectures are included in the final report on the Scientific Research Fund project, published in March 1998 and distributed to university libraries. We wish to express our thanks to the National Diet Library, the International Christian University Library, and the Kyoto University Library for their valuable support on the occasion of the visit of Ms Thacker and Mr. Jantz.