51st General Assembly held

The 51st General Assembly of the Japan Association of National University Libraries was held at Osaka University Conventional Center on July 1, 2004 hosted by Osaka University Library and 97 universities and organizations were present.
This was the first general assembly after the Association was renamed to the Japan Association of National University Libraries under the new bylaws on April 1. The schedule of the assembly was shortened from conventional two days to one day as simplification of the organizational operation was expected with the corporatization of national universities.
After the opening address by Professor Hiroshi Komiyama, President of JANUL, the greeting from Professor Hideo Miyahara, President of Osaka University and Professor Hironobu Nakamura, Director of Osaka University Library.
First, there was the progress report of the Association's activities after the 50th Memorial General Assembly in June 2003.
Then the following issues were discussed: acceptance of consolidated universities and National Institute of Japanese Literature; election of the Directors, election of the Auditors; approval of the accounts and audit in FY2003; approval of the proposed business plans for FY2004; approval of the proposed budget for FY2004; submission of a request to the Minister of MEXT; and so on.
Next, Mr. Harumasa Miura, Director of Information Division, Research Promotion Bureau, MEXT explained the way of national university libraries after the corporatization, the university library related budget for FY2004, and characteristic activities among national university libraries.
Further, the awarding ceremony of 2004 JANUL Award was performed and Kyushu University Library won the award on their achievement in the training session for cataloging of antique Latin printed books, and received the testimonial and commemorative medal
In the afternoon, workshops was held as a new attempt, the following three topics were discussed actively: recruitment of new staffs and human resources development; smooth introduction of electronic journals and their stable administrative organization; role of university library after the corporatization.
In the plenary session for summarizing the General Assembly, the following two items based on the discussion of the workshops were approved : clarification of the division of roles about the training on human resources development; setting up the discussion meeting with NII in order to solve the problem about quality control of NACSIS-CAT/ILL records.