A presentation at the annual meeting of the Art Libraries Society of North America
The effects of the novel coronavirus infection have persisted for a long time and this has meant that meetings and other events, which had previously been held with a large number of stakeholders, are now often held online. The annual meeting of the Art Libraries Society of North America was also held online on May 13, 2021, in collaboration with the Getty Research Institute, and was titled “Building Bridges: Working Together to Disseminate Japanese Art Literature.” This was the first time the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (TOBUNKEN) gave a presentation at this conference. In 2016, we signed an agreement with the Getty Research Institute in the United States regarding collaborative research. In addition to the Meiji Art Journal “Mizue,” we digitized books in our library collection, including art magazines from the Meiji period, art exhibition catalogues from the Meiji period up to the early Showa period, and woodblock print books from the Edo period. We also provided information to the Getty Research Portal, a virtual library operated by the Getty Research Institute, and we are working to publish more information online. In the presentation, we introduced the history and results of our collaborative research projects so far, and specifically presented new perspectives that could be obtained by cross-searching the materials in the possession of each country. As global travel and excursions are restricted, virtual libraries where valuable research materials are freely available online are becoming increasingly important. We will continue to cooperate with research institutes in Japan and overseas to promote the dissemination of useful information for research on cultural properties.