Case study of Japanese special collection
at Université Catholique de Louvain
Emilie Vilcot – emilie.vilcot@uclouvain,beThe japanese
special collection ofUCLouvain libraries

A collection related to the history of the University ofLouvain
1914: the university was burned down by the German army.
The entire library collections are destroyed

1915: An international appeal is launched to help rebuild theuniversity and the library's holdings. Japan responded to this appeal
and provided to the university the largest donation of Japanese books
given to an European library before the WWII.
1924-1926: 3.202 titles in 13.682 volumes were shipped toLouvain.
1970’s: separation of the university between Dutch-speaking
and French-speaking members. Foundation of the Catholic Universityof Louvain in Wallonia in Louvain-la-Neuve.

The library's collections are shared and the Japanese donation isallocated to the French-speaking university.

The structure of UCLouvain libraries
91 staff members (76 EFT)
1.900.000 books and 112.164 ebooks

42.900 physical and 22.800 electronical periodicals titles
12 libraries spread over 4 geographical sites
1 central service made up of 4 entities:- libraries activities coordination department- research data management and open repository department- electronic resources department- department of conservation, valorization of collections anddigital production

Department of conservation, valorization of collections anddigital production
Missions:• Manage the central repository that receives documents transferredby our libraries and external donations: 8600 m² for 1.500.000 volumes
including more than 300.000 documents produced before 1830. Secured storage area for
more than 35.000 volumes of precious and old documents.

• Define the prevention policies and emergency plans for thecollections• Conduct research on heritage collections and valorization actions:virtual and physical exhibitions, presentation of collections atvarious events• Digitization of documents, development of the digital libraryplatform and collaboration with other universities and partners
Staff: 7 persons (4,8 EFT)

The Japanese donation: a precious collection among heritage
materials
Majority of books dates from Edo period - Selection included a numberof precious printed editions and manuscripts
Conditions of conservation
Books and scrolls have been restored and packaged in custommade boxes before being sent to BelgiumThe storage room for old and precious books responds correctly toclimatic conservation standards
Use of the collection

No specialized department of Japanese studies at UCLouvain
Only consultations made by Japanese specialists from JapanNo specialized librarian with a good knowledge of the Japanese
language

Valorize andpromote thecollection

First step: make the collection known to UCLouvain• 2012-2015: Collaborations in exhibitions organized by UCLouvain:
choice of some books in the collection according to the exhibitions
themes• “Made in Japan” day in 2014: presentation of the collection touniversity authorities and books exhibition

Second step: promote the collection outside theuniversity• 2015-2016-2017: presentation at various conferences and to theAmbassador of Japan in Belgium• 2016 and 2019: organization of exhibitions entirely dedicated to thecollection• Using images of the collection for our libraries promotion supports

First exhibition 20/09/2016 > 08/10/2016“Portrait du livre japonais” (portrait of the Japanese book)
Event for the 150th anniversary of bilateral relations andfriendship between Belgium and Japan
Selection of 31 books and 3 scrolls
Opening in the presence of his Excellency the Ambassador ofJapan
Virtual exhibition: https://uclouvain.be/fr/bibliotheques/respat/portrait-dulivre-japonais.html

Second exhibition 10/05/2019 > 18/08/2019“Images et illustrations au Japon d’Edo” (Images and illustrations fromthe Japanese Edo period)
Selection of 32 books from the collection and woodblocks prints
Loans from Royal Museums of Belgium and the Museum ofMariemont
Opening in the presence of his Excellency the Ambassador ofJapan and visit of the collectionJapanesecollection on thedigital libraries
platform

DIAL: digital access to libraries https://dial.uclouvain.be/Home/• 2011• 2015• 2016• 2017• 2018

2015: Launch of the first dial.num

Japanese digital collection
2015:

Selection of 50 titles reflecting the variety of the collection
Digitization of 185 volumes – 16.333 pages
Encoding of the records in the libraries catalogue
60% of the total budget financed by the UCLouvain Cultural
Development Fund

2019: 19 titles added – 60 volumes – 1.772 pages

Technical Data of Dial.num•Objects stored in Fedora 3.5 (Fedora-commons.org): Open source
operating system•Search and visualization interface: VITAL (Innovative Interface Inc.). CMS:Drupal•Metadata: MODS put in METS

•OAI-PMH (Open Archive Initiative-Protocol for metadata Harvesting)2017: New project manager and launch of the new Dial.num

What’s new?
•Web site in french and english•Possibility to search through all digitized items•Possibility to filter by subject, document type, document language andcollection•Implementation of IIIF server•New viewer: Universal viewer
2018: addition of a second viewer: Mirador•Direct link from our libraries catalogue to the item visualization pagehttps://dial.uclouvain.be/digitization/enThank you
ありがとうございました