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Purpose: In Japan, 1,968 municipalities have merged between 1999 and 2005. It seems that this large-scale merging of cities, towns and villages had a great influence on the public libraries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the issues discussed at the time of the merger and to define the future issues of libraries in such merged municipalities. Methods: Questionnaires were sent out to main libraries of 483 municipalities that had merged into a single one respectively. Among them, 321 (66.5%) libraries responded the questionnaires, which are analysed in this paper. Results: The problem discussed most frequently at the time of merging is how the level of services can be adjusted between individual libraries after merging, e.g., adjustment of opening hours or library regulations for lending books. On the other hand, the issue of unifying library policies was not considered so much. These results show that the libraries have to give priority to issues on services that directly affect the users, because library staff didn't have enough time for discussion on them before the merger. The most common issue after the merger is to obtain enough budgets for purchasing library materials. Reorganization of the library is a future issue, too. Moreover, the libraries must consider how the service should be provided in geographic areas increased newly by the merger in a situation of severe fiscal limitations. To study more detailed library policies and organization in post merger of municipalities are also further research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper examines the job structure of staff (teacher librarians/senior teachers with library man- agement duties and school librarians) who work in junior high school libraries that function as media, information, and learning centers. Methods: In 2008, two questionnaires were sent to the staff (teacher librarians/senior teachers and school librarians) of 234 junior school libraries in eleven cities. Replies were received from 227 respondents (response rate 49%). The data was analyzed using deviation value, cluster analysis, and factor analysis, and then the results were compared with those of a study of elementary school libraries in 2007. Results: This research showed the following. (1) There were four main job areas of school library staff: central services, fundamental services, selective services, and peripheral services, in terms of performance and needs of jobs. (2) The staff who worked in school libraries that functioned as media, information, and learning centers did not perform most of the advanced jobs that required high technical skills. (3) The staff of the junior high school libraries and the elementary school libraries had four similar job areas, but tasks within each area differed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the job structure of the staff (teacher librarians/ senior teachers with library management duties and school librarians) who work in elementary school libraries that function as media, information, and learning centers. Methods: In 2007, a questionnaire was sent to the staff of elementary school libraries in eleven cities. The number of responses received was 356 out of 876 (41%) from 223 elementary schools. The results were analyzed using deviation value, cluster analysis, and factor analysis. Results: (1)The job structure of school library staff had four dimensions: central services, fundamental services, selective services, and peripheral services from points of view of performance and needs of jobs. (2)Staff whose school libraries functioned as media, information, and learning centers did not perform most of advanced jobs needed high technical skills. (3) School library staff had three recognitions (as domains) of planned administration, support of pupil's learning, and organization of materials in school library management. And those recognitions influenced distribution of duties between teacher librarians/ senior teachers with library management duties and school librarians. In conclusion, the author proposes a model for the job structure of school library staff with four dimensions and three domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]