5-8 October 1994
Bonn, Germany

THE FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF JAPANESE
RESOURCE SPECIALISTS

From October 5 to 8, 1994 the Japanologisches Seminar der Universit„t Bonn
acted as host for the European Association of Japanese Resource Specialists
(EAJRS) which held its fifth annual conference. The EAJRS, founded in 1989,
is an organization which aims to promote the development and dissemination
of information and library resources for Japanese studies in Europe.
About 45 participants from all over Europe and Japan had gathered for the
conference. In variance to previous years, the fifth conference started
with a special workshop on sources of Ryþkyþan history and culture in
Europe. The lectures gave a good overview of the collections available
concerning the Ryþkyþ Islands (nowadays Okinawa Prefecture) in various
European countries. Although Chinese and Japanese influence was strong on
these islands, of which Okinawa is by far the largest in terms of both size
and population, the archipelago was the domain of the Ryþkyþ Kingdom. Apart
from some appearances by British and French warships in 1816 and 1844,
there were almost no contacts with Western countries, but thanks to some
individuals many European museums and libraries have a small (sometimes
even a big) collection of Ryþkyþan textiles, lacquerware, and other
materials.
The second part of the programme was devoted to all kind of subjects: the
present situation in the main Moscow libraries, the collection of Japanese
Company Histories in the British Library of Japanese Science and
Technology, the Electronic Library Service of NACSIS, and many other topics
were aired.
Although the programme of the conference was quite full, there was also the
opportunity to talk with colleagues about the daily work in a library with
Japanese materials. For example, the automation of libraries with East
Asian collections is still in an early stage; in Great Britain a union
catalogue for Japanese materials has been set up for the five biggest
collections with the help of the Japanese cataloguing system NACSIS-CAT,
but in many other countries there is not yet a computerized catalogue of
Japanese or Chinese books. It seems difficult to get all countries to take
one line: to choose one system in order to create an European union
catalogue of Japanese books and magazines.
The next conference is to be held in Vienna, September 27-30.