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After the Tragedy
– Voice from JAPAN
CEAL Annual Meeting 2011 Plenary
2011-03-29(Tue):
Hilton Hawaiian Village, South Pacific
Ballroom I & II
Makoto Okamoto (@arg)
President / Producer
Academic Resource Guide, Inc.
1
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Hi, I'm Makoto Okamoto from Japan.
This is the third time for me to have the opportunity to speak in
CEAL.
First of all, I want to say thank you for giving me the time to talk
about real situation of Japan and libraries in Japan after the
great earthquake and tsunami.
3 Points
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•Damage and Recovery
2
•Power of “Social Media”
3
•Importance of “Cloud”
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Because of the limited time, I will present just three points.
1. Damage and Recovery
Ref. http://togetter.com/li/110567
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[Damage and Recovery]
First of all, now we're trying to survive this tragedy toward
restoration. Based on our survey, most public libraries and
research libraries suffered serious damages. Books fell from
shelves and facilities were broken. But except for some
devastating cases, most libraries are now trying to rebuild their
services.
2. Power of “Social Media”
"I'm alive"
http://togetter.com/li/112317
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[Power of “Social Media”]
Second, we realized that social media like "Twitter" and
"Facebook" are really useful and effective. Of course it works in a
limited way when electricity and telecommunication are down.
But this time, some of the victims could send their message like
"I'm alive".
Moreover, Twitter is accelerating social cooperation among us. I’ll
show you an example.
2. Power of “Social Media”
Wiki
since
3.12
http://www45.atwiki.jp/savelibrary/
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This is our Wiki for survey on damages to libraries in disaster
areas. Now we are looking at how many libraries are damaged
and how the damages are. Based on our survey, now I'm trying to
help the affected libraries by fundraising, book donation, sending
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volunteers, and other measures. This survey has been conducted
on social stream by Twitter. Please see this example.
2. Power of “Social Media”
Log
of
3.12
http://togetter.com/li/110782
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This is a log of March twelve, the very next day of the earthquake
and tsunami. Someone on social stream edited Wiki based on
tweets made by someone else regarding damages of libraries.
Through such communication, we can collect fragmented
information and aggregate it.
3. Importance of “Cloud”
Log
of
http://twitter.com/hagi_no_suke Twitter
http://twitter.com/Toriokikun
http://twitter.com/LibKGC/
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[Importance of “Cloud”]
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Third, I want to take this occasion to remind you that
cloud-computing is absolutely important and necessary for library
services. As I already mentioned, social media by third parties are
really helpful and useful because those social services have not
been affected by disconnection and blackout. On the other hand,
many websites of governmental agencies and universities,
including libraries, in disaster areas are down because of they are
not in Cloud. As far as I know, their counterparts in countries like
U.S.A., U.K., and Korea generally have a positive attitude toward
using social media, but in Japan there was a kind of hesitation to
use social media provided by private companies. However, the
great disaster is changing the old customs. Now some research
libraries began to use social media like Twitter for communicating
with their users. These are some examples. These are tweets by
Tohoku University Library, Library of Koriyama Women's
University and Fukushima University Library. I think these
challenges tell us that libraries can offer minimal services even
when the library buildings are closed, if we choose to use these
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tools.
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I have to add one more thing.
Please,
Visit JAPAN.
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Now not only those who live in Japan, but also those who are not
in Japan like most of you are scared of living in Japan or visiting
Japan.
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Please,
Visit JAPAN.
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It is true that I cannot invite you with confidence and smile until
the problem of the nuclear plant comes under control.
Please,
Visit JAPAN.
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But please visit us. Please visit Japan after the problem is settled.
Please,
Visit JAPAN.
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We can offer you more lessons from this tragedy.
Please,
Visit JAPAN.
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We always welcome you.
Please,
Visit JAPAN.
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Thank you.
Thank You.
Makoto Okamoto (@arg)
President / Producer
Academic Resource Guide, Inc.
15
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