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Art libraries and art documentation in Japan, 1986-2012: progress in networking museums, libraries and archives and the ALC: Art Libraries’ Consortium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Takeshi Mizutani
Takeshi Mizutani*
Affiliation:
Art Library, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 3-1 Kitanomaru Kõen, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8322, Japan
*
Email: takeshim@momat.go.jp
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Abstract

In 1989, the Japan Art Documentation Society (JADS) was born, with inspiration received from members of overseas art library organisations – ARLIS/UK and Ireland, ARLIS/NA, ARLIS/ANZ and others – who attended the 52nd General Conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in Tokyo in 1986. However, JADS was very definitely JADS: it did not try to become ARLIS/Japan. What reasoning lay behind the choice of the society’s name? And after its establishment what path did JADS follow: what role did it take on for itself as the framework for joint projects in the art library community in Japan? What were the activities that it aimed to provide to enhance collaboration between museums, libraries and archives? Focussing mainly on the growing interest in Japan in recent years in creating networks between museums, libraries and archives, and on the opening in 2004 of the Art Libraries’ Consortium (ALC), a union catalogue of art libraries based in the Tokyo metropolitan area which has been steadily expanding, this article gives a chronological overview of the developments that have taken place in art libraries and art documentation in Japan from 1986 to 2012.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 38 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue: Art Documentation in Japan , 2013 , pp. 6 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2013

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References

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