Tokyo University Library

Although I have been griping about the library here to many individuals, I thought I would vent my frustration in a more systematic way. Tokyo University is supposedly the top ranked university in Japan, but its library is totally medieval. By way of comparison, the labrynthine library in Name of the Rose is more rationally organized and accessible. Although the books are no longer actually chained to the desk, they might as well be. At UC Irvine, I can check out an unlimited number of books for an essentially unlimited amount of time. There are due dates, but I can renew all my books online with one click, until someone else needs a books and recalls it online. The main problem with the Tokyo University library is that it is so decentralized. Each library has its own esoteric organizational system, rules, location, etc. Let me go over the ones I use most.

The Main Library.
As with all libraries here, you need a card to get in, to keep the riffraff out. The books are on the third and fourth floor and the copy machines on the first. No free reshelving service here. If you want to copy a book, you have to go up and find it, take it down to the first floor, copy it and then take it back up yourself. Needless to say, a lot of the books are miss-shelved. They also have a plaster cast of Chopin's hand in a glass case. Creepy. I still haven't totally figured out the call numbers. Some books have two call numbers on the spine and are arranged according to both? Not sure. You can keep five books out for two weeks? If the book you are looking for starts with a letter instead of just numerals, it isn't on the third or fourth floor, it is in the closed stacks.

The Closed Stacks.
Back on the first floor, around the stairs, is the secret entrance to the closed stacks. You have to get your ID entered into the computer again. You also have to put all your stuff into a coin locker since you can only take a few papers and a pencil in the the Closed Stacks. These are not particularly valuable books, just anything older than maybe 10 years, bound periodicals, etc. If you want to copy anything you have to fill out a copy request form and put it in a box, and then copy your books. I was a bit amazed at this and tried to ask another student why and he seemed to think it was normal. I mean, since no one sees the copy request form until after you copy the books, what is the point? He said because you aren't supposed to copy entire journals or something due to copyright, but if you were doing something illegal, why would you write that down? The closed stacks have low ceiling and metal stairs. I think there are six floors to the libraries four. The basement seriously feels like the 7 and 1/2 floor in "Being John Malkovich," there are long sections where I can't walk upright. You can check out three books. So I can't get the entire four volume annotated edition of Ennin's Diary.

The Indian Philosophy Department
This is basically a graduate school department, with floor to ceiling bookshelves that have call numbers. The books are in the main office and one of the seminar rooms. It's almost like having the East Asian section of the library in your office and if someone needed something they had to come and get it from you. Hassle for you and them. To check something out you fill out a piece of paper with your information and ID no. It's just as well that it isn't computerized since I had one of their books out for several months past the due date. What happened was that I checked it out right before the semester ended and then everyone left on vacation without my realizing it. I tried to return the book five times, but no one was there for the next month and a half. Sometimes they are gone at lunch time too, or you can't get into one room or the other since they are having a seminar in there. Sometimes the rooms are open and anyone could just walk off with whatever they wanted. You can check books out for two weeks or a month depending on the configuration of the stars at the time you check out the book.

Religious Studies Department.
This is down the hall from the Indian Philosophy Dept. Basically the same set up, but there is a secretary who finds the books for you.

The Japanese Literature Department.
On the same floor as the above, but seems to mostly have bound periodicals. Of course, you aren't allowed to check them out, but you leave your ID there and go down to the basement and search for the copy room. It's all the way past the bins of rocks and skulls outside the archeology department. There you can copy the articles and bring them back and get your ID. Of course, every copy room requires a different copy card, so I now have at least four different copy cards.

The Japanese Literature and Culture Library
Sounds exactly like the other one right, and it is in the same building. But to get there you have to go out on the first floor, come in a different entrance and walk up the fourth floor. I am not sure how I found it in the first place. I have been there twice, but both times it turns out the books I needed were actually somewhere else. Needless to say, it has taken a lot of wandering around to find all of these places.

The East-West Research Center Library
This has a lot of the English books on East Asian studies which I need to look at, but unfortunately it has been under earthquake renovation since I came and the books are all in boxes. I walked over there once and there were workmen coming in and out.

Building No. 3 Library
This building is conveniently hidden, like many essential services at the University of Tokyo, underground. The entrance is across the courtyard from the main library. It is essentially an overflow library for some of the other libraries listed above. So each library has a few rows of shelves, each with their own call number system, plus some other random categories. You also have to put your bag in a locker and get in with your library card, but at least you can check things out for a month.

Historiographical Institute Library
Five stories of books, plus some cool old manuscripts, picture collections, scrolls, etc. Although I haven't had to use any of this, it is cool that they have it. This is in the same building as my office and I am affiliated, so I can have books out forever, or until they have to close the library for earthquake renovations and we get kicked out of our office, which is happening in any time now. Also, although I never had to return them, I couldn't really go anywhere with them either, since you aren't allowed to take them out of the building. So I had to read them there. Since I am only on campus once or twice a week, that is kind of a hassle.

Komaba General Education Campus Library
This library has a pretty good collection of English books and is a nice, new building. The only problem is that it is on a satellite campus that is on the other side of Tokyo. I have had to go there a few times and have a list of books I need to get from there now. Our friends actually live right behind the campus, but we are usually only there on a Sunday or holiday.

Finally, in all of the libraries except the main one, there is a system where when you take a book off the shelf, you put a little plastic book shaped marker as a place holder. In the spine, there is a place to put a special slip of paper where you write the title and call number and your name. In the age of computers, I have no idea why this is necessary. But it makes a lot of sense in the medieval ages. (At UCI, they plan on having some percentage of the books in circulation at any given time so that they have room for them all.) I am always forgetting to put them in and then on your way out the librarians ask, "Did you put the fake book thing in?" and then I have to go back and find the spot again, and fill out the paper, etc. Stupid foreigner.

There are many other libraries I haven't been too yet, like the History Dept., the Law Dept., which is notorious for their disdain for outside users, the Economics, etc, etc. You get the picture. Although I am pretty much a daytime user and this doesn't bother me, I also hear that the hours are really limited, more like the bank or post office than a library.
One of the reasons that Harvard is the best university in the US, is that they have the best library. They take that as a matter of course. In Japan, where they care more about Harvard than we do, you would expect there would be some similar form of accountability. I hear that at Waseda (the second best college in Japan), the library is easy to use. At least all the books are in one place. Hmmm.