On the 1 June we welcome our Guest Blogger Hitomi Takeuchi from Japan.

In August 2016 the Japan Library Association conducted  a survey about  Public Library Policy in  local government around  1,361 public libraries in Japan. One of the question was ‘does the public library have the policy to improve and activate the local city planning’? 47% of respondents (497 people) answered yes.

Some examples of what this encompasses are:

  • cooperation with local government
  • problem solving , legal issues
  • health & medical issues
  • business support
  • town planning
  • building and space making
  • digital library
  • multicultural-communities services.

Those ranked most important included:

  • problem solving: legal issues  31%
  • health & medical issues 44%,
  • business support 42%.

The other question is what is needed to be able to implement the policy. The top three answers were human resource development, city planning and Creating new business.

(This news come from The Japanese Library Journal May 2017)