In 1989, the Japan Art Documentation Society (JADS) was born, with inspiration received from members of overseas art library organisations – ARLIS/UK and Ireland, ARLIS/NA, ARLIS/ANZ and others – who attended the 52nd General Conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in Tokyo in 1986. However, JADS was very definitely JADS: it did not try to become ARLIS/Japan. What reasoning lay behind the choice of the society’s name? And after its establishment what path did JADS follow: what role did it take on for itself as the framework for joint projects in the art library community in Japan? What were the activities that it aimed to provide to enhance collaboration between museums, libraries and archives? Focussing mainly on the growing interest in Japan in recent years in creating networks between museums, libraries and archives, and on the opening in 2004 of the Art Libraries’ Consortium (ALC), a union catalogue of art libraries based in the Tokyo metropolitan area which has been steadily expanding, this article gives a chronological overview of the developments that have taken place in art libraries and art documentation in Japan from 1986 to 2012.

In Japan, many different organisations have played a part in creating the digital content that we now see being shared on the internet. Starting in the 1980s, developments in digital cultural heritage took place mainly in five kinds of institution: museums, libraries, archives, university and research institutes, plus the world of business. Museums and libraries played a leading role in the 1980s, and they were joined in the 1990s by universities and commercial enterprises, which developed digital content in a variety of ways. In the 2000s archival institutions became involved, and museums, libraries and archives began to form networks to enable seamless retrieval of digital cultural heritage. In the 2010s, the focus moved to the sharing of data and specifically the need to establish a common approach for the exchange of metadata for the ‘Semantic Web’. Creating content for tablet devices also became important, as did the question of standardising technology. The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 brought a keen awareness of the need to create digital records to preserve and share memories of disasters.

The Musashino Art University Museum & Library is run in a unique way that has allowed it to function as library and museum in one, ever since its inception. The contents of the digital archives being created at this 50-year-old, multifunctional museum and library are highly diverse, ranging from rare books, held in the library, to design collections, visual resources, and material on folk art, held in the art museum. Together with the University’s Research Center for Art and Design, the Museum & Library is currently creating an integrated database of its holdings, and digitising its archive collections. The aim is to offer multifaceted information networks that can be interrogated simultaneously for all intellectual information relating to specific artists or artworks as well as to the art collection of the museum. The common challenge in creating these digital archives is the systematisation, sharing and visualisation of a multiplicity of research resources.

The Edo-Tokyo Museum Library is the specialist library of a museum that opened in 1993, and that has a particular focus on the history and culture of Tokyo (known in pre-modern times as Edo). It houses a collection of books, documents, secondary materials and microfilms covering history, performing arts, customs and traditions, architecture, literature and much else. The Library’s holdings are a part of the Museum’s collections; we record them and store them, making them available for public consultation on the understanding that they are objects to be treated with care, preserved for future generations, and may also be used in the museum exhibitions. At the same time, we also make a point of collecting art exhibition catalogues, and we have characteristics of an art library. On the eve of our 20th anniversary our operations are due for a review, but here I will concentrate on giving a brief summary of our activities.

The National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo had its beginnings in the Institute of Art Research, which was the first institution to specialise in research in fine art in Japan. The library at the Institute played a central role from the very start, acquiring and making accessible its large collection of material related to fine art, with an emphasis on books and photographs. In recent years, we have also begun to play a role as an archive and information centre. What were the original aims and objectives behind the establishment of the library, and how have its activities changed? Amidst the many developments in recent years – the role of the internet, now a major information tool, the organisational changes at the Institute itself – it is essential that we continue to do the work for which we have long been recognised in art history research and the preservation and utilisation of cultural properties, and at the same time find ways to collaborate with related institutions.

This article offers a brief summary of Cultural Heritage Online, a web portal that contains information and images illustrating Japan’s cultural heritage. What are some of the site’s recently-added features, which are aimed at increasing opportunities to find out about 96,000 objects and places of historical and cultural interest? The map navigation feature, for example, which allows users to search for works of art, sites of interest, and museums, in a particular location; and the Associative Search function, which has a Limit Search option that gives them the opportunity to narrow down results? What will be the effect of the new link that allows data to be added directly by participating museums and art galleries? The author takes readers through a sample search sequence and explains some of the possible options. He also considers ways in which this web portal might develop in the future: a database of artists will be shared online in due course, and an English version of the website is in preparation.

The National Diet Library (NDL) is Japan’s national library, established in 1948 to provide research facilities for members of parliament, but now used most by the general public. Similar in purpose and scope to the US Library of Congress, the NDL is a deposit library, and collects copies of all publications that originate in Japan. For nearly a decade and a half the Library has been making digital reproductions of paper documents and printed material, but the pace at which it has added to its digitised content has speeded up remarkably in recent years. It has also developed and continues to enhance integrated search services that allow users to cross-search the databases of many other museums, libraries, archives and research institutes in Japan and retrieve information resources from them. A digital archive of records of the earthquake and related disasters that struck Japan in March 2011 is under way.

The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 was a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions even for a country that is one of the most earthquake-prone in the world. The saveMLAK project, which came into being in response to this earthquake and its related disasters, comprises an online network of museums, libraries and archives, as well as kōminkan, or community centres (hence the acronym MLAK), and is the first organisation of its kind in Japan. What was the genesis of saveMLAK, and what kind of activities does it engage in? Who are saveMLAK’s participants? What needs to be done to help the saveMLAK network develop further and become even more effective in coping with future natural disasters?