Message from the University Librarian

The University of Tokyo Libraries’ collection had reached 10 million books and journals in the fiscal year 2023. This is the first university library in Japan holding a collection of more than 10 million volumes.

The University of Tokyo has 3 main libraries, General Library, Komaba Library, Kashiwa Library, and 27 departmental libraries, respectively placed in departments, graduate schools or research institutions, etc. These 30 libraries, which accrete as "one collaborate working system" and provide services, is "University of Tokyo Library System" (hereinafter referred to as "UTokyo Library System"), and the "10 million books/journals" are the combined collections from these 30 libraries.

UTokyo Library System was established in 1877 on the campass of three departments of Law, Science, and Literature in Kanda Hitotsubashi. The library totally held approximately 54,000 volumes: approximately 28,000 volumes from these three departments and 26,000 volumes from the "Yobimon" (university preparatory school) of this University. The department of Medicine also had a book room inherited from Tokyo Igakko (Tokyo Medical School). Since then, as the university expanded with the establishment of new faculties, graduate schools and research institutes, libraries were also established in each department. However, the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 burned many of the libraries' materials to ashes. The building of the current General Library was rebuilt with a lot of support in 1928. However, even after that, several departments were damaged by air raids during the Pacific War, and several departments had to evacuate their library collections. In the postwar period, General Library was once sealed off due to the University of Tokyo conflict, and then there were also damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquakes.

During this time, while the mission to support learning, education, and research activities throughout the university has not changed, the roles and functions expected of UTokyo Library System have changed and diversified along with the development of the university and the social environment. To date, UTokyo Library System has realized the university-wide common expense system for the purchase of journals and other materials in order to maintain a stable supply of basic academic information, and has endeavored to enrich the student books that contribute to learning and education. In addition to expanding and maintaining paper collections, we also maintain e-resources (e-journals, e-books, and databases) . The convenience of these e-resources, being able to use anytime and anywhere, has been reaffirmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and there is a demand for further improvement in the future.

Furthermore, in order to widely disseminate the world-class research results produced at the University of Tokyo both domestically and internationally, and to give back to our society, we have established and been operating the academic institutional repository, "UTokyo Repository", and are also working hard to make academic papers and other materials publicly available and open access. In February 2023, the University of Tokyo formulated "The Policy of the University of Tokyo on Research Data Management and Utilization", and "The University of Tokyo Open Access Policy". Then in February 2024, the national policy was also formulated, and currently reaffirming the library's role in promoting open science and open access.

In addition, we are promoting "UTokyo Digital Archives Development Project" to digitize and disseminate the academic assets held by the University of Tokyo. By aiming to strengthen the foundations that support academic diversity, we are devoting ourselves to create an environment in which the university's rich academic assets can be accessed anytime, anywhere by building a digital archive in collaboration with departments across the university.

The coexistence of such digital data and traditional holdings can also enhance the value of the library. The University of Tokyo's fundamental policy, "UTokyo Compass," is based on the concept of fusion of "humanities and sciences" and "East and West". In addition to that, it can be said that UTokyo Library System also contains the fusion of “tradition and revolution" and without either, this library would not exist.

UTokyo Library System will continue to play its role as the foundation of research and educational activities of the University of Tokyo, the world center of collaborative knowledge creation, and to return its academic assets to society in a new form, and we will continue to make efforts to develop and provide these services. We do hope that all users will fully make use of the library and that we can continue to count on your more understanding and cooperation.

坂井　修一
Sakai, Shuichi

東京大学附属図書館長
University Librarian
University of Tokyo Library System