Dear Harald, Robin and the SSJ-Forum Community:

I am a regular lurker on the SSJ list (Hi Ellis, John, everyone). Thanks to Robin Le Blanc for catching Harald Conrad's and alerting him to NCC and the Image Use Protocol Website (Robin was a central organizing force for IUP and an eloquent speaker at the Tokyo conference). Thank you again Robin for a magnificent resource that is heavily used worldwide and keeps growing.

The Image Use Protocol Website (IUP)
http://guides.nccjapan.org/imageuse?hs=a was created because scholars and students needed help in locating, seeking permission for, and using Japanese visual images in their teaching, research, and publications.
To that end we worked with stakeholders in Japan and with Western publishers and created bilingual letter templates (and scenarios) for potential users. Indeed the publishing culture and the copyright and fair use notions in Japan are very different from those in the West. During the project we learned facets of those differences that needed to be clarified with Japanese rights owners. The proceedings of the Conference were later published in Japanese and distributed to museums, temples and shrines, manga and anime creators, and widely throughout the Japanese publishing industry.
Both stakeholders in Japan and Western publishers accept the bilingual templates IUP created. Please make use of the IUP Website, and tell us what more you need!

Since IUP was developed NCC has created a number of other freely available online resources including the Research Access Guides to Japanese Museums, Libraries and Archives http://guides.nccjapan.org/researchaccess?hs=a that provide basic English summaries of the websites of major research institutions in Japan, includes information about requirements for foreign researchers, with letter templates for applying to use institutional collections.

What you and your Sheffield colleagues are planning sound similar to the Research Access Guides, and I hope we can pool our resources and work together. NCC would be delighted if you and your colleagues want to suggest things we should add to the existing entries in the Research Access Guides, and we will be happy to help in any way in your efforts.
The first edition of the Research Access Guides was published in March
2012 and contains detailed entries for 50 Japanese Museums, Libraries and Archives; the second edition of the guides will be published on NCC's Website in March
2013 and will contain another 50 institutional profiles.

Also the IUP Website contains specific background information on copyright and fair use practices in Japan, the US and Canada, and we would very much like to add resources for the UK and other countries. NCC is anxious to work more closely with colleagues worldwide in the field of Japanese studies to develop more resources that are freely available online. How can we work together. I will write you directly, Harald, and welcome suggestions from everyone.

Please check out the NCC Homepage at
http://guides.nccjapan.org/homepage
to find out about other services. The right column under NCC Programs and Services contains handy links directly to major NCC resources.

Best, Vickey

Victoria Lyon Bestor
Executive Director
North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources
149 Upland Road
Cambridge, MA 02140
Tel: 617-945-7294
Fax: 617-812-5854
Website: http://www.nccjapan.org/
Email: vbestor@fas.harvard.edu