The Librarian Course at Rikkyo University has certified students as professional librarians for over 50 years. The program allows students to gain qualification as Librarians (shisho) in accordance with the Library Law of Japan or School Librarians (shisho kyoyu) in accordance with the School Library Law. Undergraduates and graduate students in any academic program on the Ikebukuro or Niiza campuses of Rikkyo can register for these programs. The Librarian Course curriculum has been designed by dedicated faculty to educate students as information specialists with an international perspective and a strong professional orientation.

The Rikkyo Librarian Course has two major goals:

Students in the Librarian Couse are required to do a library practicum to complete the requirements for the Rikkyo program. However, since the internship is not required by law for certification, students may receive their Librarian certification even though they have not fulfilled this requirement. Rikkyo is unusual in making the practicum mandatory, but considers it essential for students since they can apply theory to practice and gain experience in an actual library setting. Arrangements for the practicum are made in consultation with the students. Locations may be in the Tokyo area or farther afield, including Rikkyo-specific international practicums in Hong Kong, etc.

Education for librarianship in Japan was officially established with the founding of a Librarian Training Institute by the Ministry of Education in 1921. Later that decade, the first director of the Rikkyo University Library, Harold Charles Spackman, was an early proponent of university-level education for Japanese librarians. Spackman and his colleagues in the library devised a farsighted and detailed plan to establish such an academic department at Rikkyo and invite experts from the United States to serve as professors. While Spackman had some support from the university, the plan was ultimately unsuccessful. (Miyabe Yoriko, St. Paul’s librarian, No. 22, 2007, p. 223-27.) It would be fifty years before a course for librarianship was established at Rikkyo.

After the war and the promulgation of Japan’s Library Law, Rikkyo established the Library Course in 1967 under the directorship of Professor Ebisawa Arimichi, the noted historian. Library educators Shimizu Shozo and Miyabe Yoriko also joined the faculty and each went on to serve as director, in turn. Present director, Nakamura Yuriko (Ph.D. University of Tokyo), came to Rikkyo in 2011.

Under the leadership of Professor Miyabe, a second senior position, Specially Appointed Professor, was added. Chiyo Masaaki (National Diet Library Librarian, retired), Nagata Haruki (professor emeritus, Tsukuba University), and Ueda Shuichi (professor emeritus, Keio University) served successively in the position, which is now held by Ellen H. Hammond (Yale University East Asia Library director, retired).

Over the years, the Librarian Course at Rikkyo has graduated a large number of outstanding library professionals. Graduates of the program have gone on to careers in a wide range of institutions: the National Diet Library, prefectural-level libraries such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Library and Saitama Prefectural Library, and prominent public libraries such as the Yokohama City Central Library and the Urayasu City Central Library, as well as various academic and school libraries. In addition, some students from the program go on to graduate school for further training. Graduates of Rikkyo’s Librarian Course are represented in the ranks of Japan’s notable library leaders.

Faculty in Rikkyo’s Librarian Course are active researchers and educators. Featured below are some of the recent activities of the program and program faculty.

The program publishes an annual scholarly journal, St. Paul’s Librarian. Also known as “SPL,” the journal features the research of program faculty, as well as reports from students on their library practicums and news of the program’s special events. Since 2011, this publication has been ingested into Rikkyo’s online institutional repository, Rikkyo Roots, for open access.

At least once a year, the program sponsors events that are open to the public. The themes of these lectures and symposia are chosen to bring library and information science to actual libraries, their communities, and the larger society. Below is an overview of recent events in this series:

“Symposium on International Trends in Libraries and Archives in 2017”
Presentations by Hara Osamu (Rikkyo University Library), Nakamura Yuriko (Professor, Rikkyo University), and Koga Takashi (Professor, Tenri University)

“The Global Transformation of Libraries, LIS Education, and LIS Professionals”
Lecture by Dr. Sandra Hirsh, Director, School of Information, San Jose State University, U.S.A.

“La literature i les biblioteques per a nens i nenes a Espanya” (“Children’s literature and services for children in Spanish libraries”)
Lecture by Dr. Joan Portell Rifà, Adjunct Instructor, Autonomous University of Barcelona
[Sponsored by Shirayuri Women’s University with support from Rikkyo University]

“A ‘New Museum’ and a ‘New Library’ a Century Ago: The Career of John Cotton Dana, Radical Democrat”
Lecture by Dr. Carol Duncan, Professor Emerita, Ramapo College, U.S.A.

“Libraries and Social Capital”
Lecture by Professor Shibanai Yasufumi, Tokyo Keizai University

“Uehashi Nahoko’s World”
Library Exhibit to celebrate the Rikkyo alumna Uehashi Nahoko’s receipt of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing in 2014.

With the participation of Librarian Course students and graduates, the program actively seeks funding opportunities for educational activities and collaborative research projects. Current and past projects include: