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For a long time, Japanese public libraries were managed by local governments. However, in 2003, other organizations, including private enterprises, superseded the management of libraries and introduced an outsourcing system called “designated administrator system.” The suitability of this outsourcing system for libraries is now being debated, with many people arguing that it is unfit. To provide basic data for this discussion, we conducted a causal analysis on the introduction of outsourcing to public libraries in Japan. We performed a matching analysis, difference-in-differences (DD) analysis, and DD analysis with matching on library usage in terms of three factors, namely, the gate count, number of loans, and number of reference transactions. In the matching analysis, the average gate count per capita of all outsourcing libraries was higher than that of all direct management libraries. In the DD analysis with and without matching, the average gate count per capita and number of loans per capita of all the outsourcing libraries were higher than those of all the direct management libraries. These differences were statistically significant at a 0.01 significance level. The results indicate that the introduction of the designated administrator system increases the gate count per capita. Considering the difference in characteristics of the matching and DD analyses, the number of loans per capita may also be increasing with the introduction of the system., 9th Asia-Pacific Library & Information Education and Practice (A-LIEP 2019) Days: 4-7 November, 2019 Place: Selangor, Malaysia

Several decades ago, food and drinks were disallowed in most Japanese libraries. However, as discussions of “Library as a Place” have increased in recent years, the number of public and university libraries that have relaxed their policies to allow food and drinks have been increasing. This study focused on the opinions of library users on allowing food and drinks in public libraries and conducted a questionnaire survey among users of nine Japanese libraries. The results indicated that many users favored allowing food and drinks in libraries. Furthermore, it was found that users tend to frequently visit and stay longer in libraries where food and drinks are allowed., {"references":["R. Oldenburg, The great good place: cafés, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons and other hangouts at the heart of a community. New York: Marlowe, 1999, 384p.","M. Kawamoto and K. Tsuji, \"Factual investigation of allowing food and drinks in Japanese libraries,\" graduation thesis in University of Tsukuba, 2016 (in Japanese).","M. Davis and J. Boyer, \"The endless picnic: changing food and drink policies in academic libraries,\" ERIC., No. ED399964, 1996. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED399964","G. Singh, \"Evolving space: An examination of coffee shops in academic libraries,\" Master's paper, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina., 2002, 30p.","\"A coffee shop in the library,\" Current Awareness Portal, 2005. http://current.ndl.go.jp/node/2775 (accessed May 20, 2015) (in Japanese).","Editorial Board, \"Totalling reports and analysis of questionnaire on food and drink manners in libraries,\" Pharmaceutical Library Bulletin., vol. 53, no. 2, 2008, pp. 148–165. (in Japanese).","Y. Terasawa, \"Survey results on the library environment,\" Hospital Libraries., vol. 33, no. 2, 2014, pp. 107–112. (in Japanese).","M. Ueoka, \"User study at Keio University Library,\" The Journal of Information Science and Technology Association., vol. 58, no. 6, 2008, pp. 278–284. (in Japanese)."]}

図書館の利用を増加させるラーニング・コモンズ（LC）像を調査分析した。具体的には，小山（2012）に示されている24のLCをサンプルとし，『日本の図書館：統計と名簿』に記されている入館者数，貸出数，参考受付総件数を利用量として取り上げ，これらを増加させるLCの要素を分析した。結果，プリンタ，コピー機，ノートPCがあり，学生一人当たりコンピュータ設置台数が多く，さらにTA・SAによる支援があって，1階に設置されているLCは，他のLCに比べて，入館者数や参考受付総件数を増加させる可能性があることが示された。

Aim of Study – The paper aims to propose cooperative reading, which is a reading support technique that allows library users to help each other. To achieve cooperative reading, it is necessary for a user to discover others with similar interests. Therefore, this paper also aims to develop and evaluate a recommendation function that recommends similar users using Nippon Decimal Classification (NDC) Tree Profiling. Research Question – Is the user recommendation using NDC Tree Profiling effective in finding similar users? Which parameter of NDC Tree Profiling method is the most effective expression of users’ interests? Method – We developed the Shizuku2.0 system to support the creation of a library user community in which users help each other efficiently and mutually. We also designed and developed NDC Tree Profiling, which enables the creation of library user profiles, for the purposes of the user recommendation mechanism. To verify the effect of the user recommendation mechanism, we performed an experiment with 37 student users to calculate recall and precision. Findings – We found that the recommendation using NDC Tree Profiling is more effective than a random recommendation. However, we also recognized that there is room for improvement relative to a past information recommendation technique. Moreover, we found the second level of the NDC code could be the most effective expression of users’ interests. In the discussion of the optimization of parameters, we propose a new way of implementing the NDC Tree, based on the second division of NDC, which is expected to improve creation of user profiles., A-LIEP 2011:Issues, Challenges and Opportunities. 22-24 June 2011 Pullman Lakeside Resort, Putrajaya