ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries September 1985 / 395 B ibliographic instruction for study ab road program s By E u gen e A. E n g eld in g er Head Reference Librarian University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Preparing the exchange student for bibliographic culture shock. I recently had the opportunity to spend a semes- ter in Tokyo as faculty adviser to our students p a r­ ticipating in the Sophia University Year-in-Japan Program . It is the practice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, to allow one faculty m em ­ ber to accompany the student contingent each se­ mester, and I was selected for Fall 1984. D uring my visit I was able to make a num ber of observa­ tions and arrive at conclusions which seem worthy of consideration by other American public service librarians. In addition to advising students, the faculty member is expected either to teach a class, engage in research, or pursue an academic project of some type. I have observed innum erable frustrated stu­ dents in our library over the years, and it seemed to me th at in a foreign country, faced w ith a strange and unfam iliar culture, our students must be even more frustrated. I further reasoned th a t since their Japanese language skills are not strong, use of a for­ eign library to satisfy classroom assignments must be nearly impossible for some students, especially with the preponderance of the resources w ritten in Japanese. I couldn’t help w ondering how they would find sufficient English language materials. Faced w ith so m any new experiences, students would hardly place discovering the location of E n ­ glish language library resources at the top of their list of priorities. Even if it was a priority, it would not be an easily accomplished task. It seemed then th a t a guide to the best English language collec­ tions around Tokyo would be a valuable tool for students to have in their possession when they a r­ rived. Collection of inform ation for the com pila­ tion of this guide, therefore, becam e my m ajor project. In the course of visiting Japanese libraries and interviewing librarians, I would raise the question of library orientation to determine the prevailing attitudes tow ard bibliographic instruction and how m uch and w h at types were being done. I viewed each library through the eyes of the for­ eigner I was and asked myself how difficult it would be for our students to use the collection. I found th a t relatively little BI was done for Japanese students and virtually nothing for students from abroad. Thus I realized th a t a guide such as the one I was contem plating would be useful for some stu­ dents, but th at some form of library orientation at the home university might be in order. In the midst of pursuing my research, I also came to the realization th a t although American propo­ nents of bibliographic instruction have expressed concern in the literature for many types of stu­ dents, one group has been overlooked: American students who go abroad to study. The professional literature is replete w ith admonitions to see to the needs of domestic students of various levels and dis- 396 / C&RL News Cr: Hide Fujikawa Circulation desk, Ichigaya Campus Library, Sophia University, Tokyo. ciplines and in recent years several articles have ap ­ peared regarding the needs of foreign students in American libraries. I am unaw are of anything th at discusses the needs of A m erican students going abroad and w hat the role of the home academic li­ brarian should be in the preparation of students for their research in foreign libraries. In fact, I wonder if we librarians have given even passing thought (other than envy) to the students we send abroad. Many librarians reading this will exclaim, “Jeez, give me a break! I can’t even deal w ith our regular students let alone our foreign students. Now we have to see to our students’ needs in foreign li­ braries. W here will it all end?” While this attitude is one w ith which I can sympathize, I also believe there is a challenge here th a t we must address. The following suggestions will provide a guide­ line for those interested in pursuing this problem. They are based on my experiences in Japan, p artic­ ularly Sophia University, but I believe many of the principles are applicable to other countries and cul­ tures. These are questions th a t should be asked of adm inistrators of the study abroad programs as well as students and faculty who have participated in them. Some inform ation may only be available by contacting librarians and others at the foreign institutions where the study is taking place. W ith which countries does your institution have exchange programs and how many students and staff participate in each of them? It would help to know something about education and libraries in these cultures, if you expect to ask the right ques­ tions and hope to give students any real help. If you are unsure of the role of libraries, librarians, and education in these countries, an excellent source for background inform ation is the Encyclopedia o f L i­ brary and Inform ation Science and The Interna­ tional Encyclopedia o f Higher Education. The num ber of participants may affect your perception of the need and the type of orientation th a t would be appropriate. If only a few students are involved, for example, a very informal discussion w ith them might be sufficient. How different are the cultures from our own? Libraries in Europe may be more like ours than those of some Asian or T hird W orld countries. To a greater or lesser extent many foreign libraries and educational systems are modeled after W estern prototypes. In Japan, for example, American li­ brarians have exerted a definite influence, espe­ cially since W orld W ar II. Nonetheless, in some particulars, students will find the libraries quite different. W hat foreign language skills are expected of stu­ dents in the program ? At the Ichigaya Cam pus of Sophia University, for example, English is the lan ­ guage of instruction and the library collection is predom inantly English. Most of the library staff speak some English and the head librarian is Amer­ ican. This all makes library research similar to that done in the United States. If students attend other universities th ro u g h o u t Tokyo, even th e m ain Sophia University Cam pus, they would find the collection devoted prim arily to Japanese language September 1985 / 397 books and journals and the English language skills of the staff uneven. D uring my visits to different universities, I found some reference librarians to have rem arkable com m and of English and others v ery little . S tu d e n ts a n d fa c u lty w ith w ell- developed language competency will, of course, have fewer problems. U.S. librarians may wish to make their students aw are of this potential prob­ lem since it may occur in m any countries. W h at are the academic goals of the program ? Some study abroad program s are more culturally oriented, while others are more concerned w ith ac­ ademic instruction. Some programs may stress the art, music, language, archaeology, or other aspects of the host country, whereas m any concentrate on classroom activities. The Sophia program em pha­ sizes the classroom and m any courses are con­ ducted like those in the United States. Some courses require library assignments and others do not. Aca­ demically oriented program s would benefit from librarian involvement much more than the cultur­ ally oriented study abroad program . Length of the stay abroad should also be considered. Short aca­ dem ic program s th a t require lib rary use w ould benefit greatly from preparation by library staff whereas a year long program which emphasized museum touring, archaeological digs, or other such activities might not. W hat are the research and library project expec­ tations of the faculty in the foreign institutions? G ra d u a te program s m ay req u ire m ore lib ra ry work than undergraduate programs, whereas cer­ tain disciplines, especially in the sciences and social sciences, may be more apt to assume the ability to do research than others. E ducational philosophy m ust also be consid­ ered. In Japanese universities undergraduates are not expected to supplem ent lectures w ith materials found in libraries. It is assumed th a t the teacher will tell the student w hat is to be learned. This is not totally true at Sophia because th a t institution is m ore affected by W estern ideas of education. Nonetheless, the role of the teacher and the class­ room in the host country’s view of higher education will affect the am ount of library research expected of students. How extensive are the English language holdings of the libraries? Few, if any, disciplines would have adequate coverage w ithout the inclusion of at least some English materials. The question then is the quality, not just the quantity of the resources. At Sophia University Ichigaya Cam pus, virtually the entire collection is in English w ith emphasis in the social sciences and humanities. At least a p art of every other collection I visited in Tokyo is in E n ­ glish or another W estern language. Elsewhere in Tokyo, one can find m any English collections, but th a t may not be the case in the host cities of other exchange programs. How are the materials accessed? Most American students will be fam iliar w ith card catalogs and com puter term inals and this may be the most com­ monly used access to library materials elsewhere. However, in my visits to Japanese libraries, I found no online catalogs b u t several printouts for the book collection. Many others have com puter p rin t­ outs of their periodical holdings. It is also a com­ mon practice to have separate catalogs (card or book) for W estern language materials and for Jap ­ anese language materials. This practice can make searching for books easier, if students know th at sometimes Eastern and W estern language m ateri­ als are classified separately. Another im portant access concern is the classifi­ cation system used. Most students have had experi­ ence w ith the Dewey Decimal and the Library of Congress systems, so if the foreign library uses ei­ ther of these, adjustm ent will be easier. In Tokyo, I found the Nippon Decimal Classification (NDC) system to be most widely used. As a variation on Dewey, it should cause few problems unless stu­ dents attem pt to browse it as if it were Dewey. Sev­ eral im p o rta n t differences betw een NDC and D DC could cause these browsers some confusion. M any lib ra rie s h a v e u n iq u e h o m e -g ro w n schemes which may strike students as peculiar. We all know the difficulty some students have accom­ m odating SuDocs numbers in a library in which the m ain collection is classified by LC or Dewey. The m ain library at Sophia University, for exam­ ple, has used three systems over the years. They are Sophia’s own system until 1981, but now Nippon Decimal Classification is used for Japanese lan ­ guage m aterials and Library of Congress for for­ eign materials. Using several catalogs and three shelving arrangem ents all have obvious ram ifica­ tions for students. However, in this case a strong reference departm ent and a clearly w ritten English language library handbook does much to mitigate problems there. Situations like this are, of course, not insurm ountable, but some preparatory orien­ tation at home would be useful. Another problem w ith access is the lack of sub­ ject catalogs. Most catalogs in Japanese academic and special libraries provide author and title ac­ cess, but for m any the prim ary subject approach is through a classified catalog which requires a stu­ dent to know the classification num ber for that subject. This is about the same as using a shelf list as the subject catalog. The m ain library at Sophia, for example, provides subject access since 1974, but only a classified catalog for materials acquired be­ fore th a t time. The National Diet Library (Japan’s Library of Congress) uses its own subject headings, while the Japan External Trade Organization Li­ brary, w ith its very fine special collection of busi­ ness related materials has its own marvelously de­ tailed and m ultifaceted subject approach. Thus, there is little uniform ity of subject approach when it does exist. This can be a grave concern about which students might be w arned in advance since at home they often have trouble w ith subject cata­ logs th at show more uniform ity between institu­ tions. 398 / C&RL News W hat about checkout policies, loan periods, in­ terlibrary loan, open stacks, photocopying and other related aspects of library organization and service th a t can make the research task easier or more difficult? Students should have materials on these policies before they go. In Japan, I found in­ terlibrary loan available in virtually all libraries, but there did not seem to be the enthusiasm for lending or borrowing in this way th at appears to be the case among my American colleagues. Closed stacks are found more frequently in Tokyo than in the U.S. Having books paged and thereby losing one’s chance to browse may disturb some students, especially in the libraries w ith only a classified cat­ alog or otherwise poor subject access. W hat about periodical indexes and general ref­ erence materials? Will these be fam iliar tools or will students need to learn new ones? Virtually all the university libraries I visited contained basic En- Miriam Dudley Award At the 1983 ALA Annual Conference in Los An­ geles, the ACRL Board of Directors established the Miriam Dudley Bibliographic Instruction L ib rar­ ian of the Year Award, an annual aw ard of $900 presented to a librarian who has made an especially significant contribution to the advancement of bib­ liographic instruction. The aw ard honors Miriam Dudley, whose pioneering efforts in the field of BI led to the formation of the ACRL Bibliographic In ­ struction Section. Nominees for the Miriam Dudley Bibliographic Instruction L ibrarian of the Year Award should have achieved distinction in such areas as planning and im plem entation of a bibliographic instruction program that has served as a model for other pro­ grams; development of courses on bibliographic in­ struction in ALA-accredited library schools, or de­ velopment of bibliographic instruction continuing education courses th at have served as models for other courses; research and publication th at has had a demonstrable im pact on the concepts and methods of teaching bibliography; and/or active participation in organizations devoted to the pro­ motion and advancement of bibliographic instruc­ tion. Nominees need not necessarily meet all the criteria. The aw ard has been funded by Mountainside Publishing, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and it will be administered by ACRL. The ACRL/BIS Miriam Dudley L ibrarian of the Year Award Committee consists of five members, including the chair of BIS and the past ch air (who serves as chair of the Award Committee). T he d e a d lin e for n o m in atio n s for th e 1986 aw ard is December 1, 1985. Send nominations to: Miriam Dudley Bibliographic Instruction L ib rar­ ian of the Year Award, Attn: William Miller, Asso­ ciation of College and Research Libraries, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611. ■ ■ glish language reference works th at students will have been familiar with including, W h o ’s Who in America, Encyclopedia Britannica, W orld A lm a ­ nac, Business Periodicals Index, Social Sciences In ­ dex, and many others. Students may be relieved to learn of this. These are a few of the questions th a t should be asked by libraries in American colleges with study abroad programs. The results of an investigation will probably show th a t not all programs need any attention from the library staff. Just as not all uni­ versity classes are conducive to teaching library skills and bibliographic instruction, neither will it be relevant to the needs of all students going abroad. On the other hand, there may be a pro­ gram or two in which some preparation of the stu­ dents by the staff before they leave may save the student considerable frustration. It certainly seems to be a m atter w orthy of more consideration than it has received to date. ■ ■ Letter UCB’s Bibliography 1 course To the editor: On page 352 of your July/August 1985 issue there is a highly inaccurate story about the Bibliography 1 course given in the School of Library and Infor­ m ation Studies at the University of California in Berkeley. I w ant to correct those inaccuracies. 1. T he Board of Regents did not reduce the credits for the Bibliography 1 course at Berkeley. It was not involved in any way. 2. The course was reviewed by the school’s fac­ ulty who found it to be inadequately related to bib­ liography and the purpose of the course and who proposed revisions to give it greater bibliographic direction. They concluded th at the revised content w arranted two units of credit rather than three, an assessment responsibility assigned to members of the faculty senate. 3. The University will give teaching assignment preference first to Ph.D. candidates and campus li­ brarians, and second to others, as it has for the past nine years, contrary to your report th at this is new. In fact a num ber of others usually receive teaching assignments in Bibliography 1 and th at will be true again this year in the revised format. Reform and improvement in education are diffi­ cult at best in a profession inherently reluctant to change. The filing of labor practice complaints makes the process of change all the more difficult and costly, increasing the odds against institutional improvement. The situation with Bibliography 1 at Berkeley, is, therefore, substantially different from the re­ port carried in your journal.—Bichard P. Hafner Jr., Public Affairs Officer, University of Califor­ nia, Berkeley. ■ ■