75th Anniversary of the Faculty of Letters' Library and Information Science Major

In pre-war Japan, there were almost no educational institutions at the university level for the professional training of librarians. Libraries primarily functioned as "places to store books," and the academic field for systematically studying user services and information delivery methods was still immature.

The turning point came after World War II. The Civil Information and Education Section of the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers (GHQ) promoted the development of academic and educational systems in Japan as it made a fresh start as a democratic nation. As part of this effort, they proposed a plan to establish a library science department at a university.

Keio University was chosen as the base for this initiative. Robert Gitler, an American library scientist who played a central role in the selection process, ultimately chose Keio University after investigating several universities, including the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Doshisha University, and Waseda University.

One of the deciding factors is said to be the English translation of "The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi" by Eiichi Kiyooka, which was presented to Gitler when he first visited Mita Campus on January 10, 1951, the birthday of Yukichi Fukuzawa. It is said that Gitler's encounter with Fukuzawa's spirit and the school culture of Keio University encouraged the establishment of Japan's first library school at Keio. Kiyooka was Fukuzawa's grandson and, while involved in English education at Keio University, had experience lecturing on Japanese language and history at Columbia University and the University of Hawaii. After the war, he also worked hard on negotiations with GHQ for the return of Hiyoshi Campus, supporting Keio University as an educator with an international perspective.

In the spring of the year Gitler first visited Keio University, library science education finally began in the wooden Building No. 5 on Mita Campus. A new Department of Library Science was established within the Faculty of Letters, and it was known externally as the "Japan Library School." In classes taught by instructors dispatched from the United States and Canada, library science was taught in English. Emphasis was placed on the idea of "how to deliver necessary information to users," aiming for a library that supports people's learning and knowledge creation rather than just a storage facility.

By 1956, all faculty members were Japanese, and Japan's own library science education began in earnest. Furthermore, in 1967, the Library and Information Science major was established in the Master's Program of the Graduate School of Letters, and the following year, the department's name was changed to the Department of Library and Information Science. In 1975, Doctoral Programs were established, greatly expanding the scope of research.

Starting in 1993, three courses—"Library," "Information Media," and "Information Retrieval (now Information Management)"—were introduced to provide education that responds to changes in the information society. Since the faculty reorganization in 2000, it has continued to the present as the Library and Information Science major within the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Additionally, in 2004, the "Information Resources Management" field was established in the Master's Program for the purpose of re-educating working professionals.

Today, the scope of research has expanded significantly to include digital archives, internet searches, databases, and electronic resource management. Research is also progressing on digitizing classical books and historical materials, making them available to the world, and utilizing them.

Universities where one can specialize in Library and Information Science are limited in Japan. In the Library and Information Science major, reference training is conducted by staff from the Mita Campus library, and there are many exercises where students work on assignments using actual libraries and databases. A major feature is that students can not only learn knowledge but also practically acquire the "ability to handle information."

Throughout its 75-year history, the Library and Information Science major, including its predecessor, has sent many individuals involved in library culture out into society.

Shunsaku Tamura, Director of the Ishikawa Prefectural Library, is known as a researcher who studied Library and Information Science in the Doctoral Programs of the Graduate School of Letters and contributed to the development of information seeking and library service research. He has viewed libraries as Public spaces where people encounter knowledge and has expanded their possibilities.

The late Kyoko Matsuoka, a children's literature author and translator who served as the Honorary Director of the Tokyo Children's Library, was one of the Keio University alumni who studied in the Department of Library Science of the Faculty of Letters. She devoted herself to the translation and creation of children's books, leaving a significant mark on Japan's children's reading culture. The philosophy of the Japan Library School lives on in her activities, as she continued to nurture libraries as "places where children encounter books."

Keiko Kurata, who in 2024 became the 18th Librarian of the National Diet Library, which serves as Japan's largest knowledge base, entered the Faculty of Letters as a second-degree student after graduating from the Department of Political Science in the Faculty of Law to study Library and Information Science. After completing the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Letters, she has a long track record of involvement in education and research as a Library and Information Science researcher.

The knowledge and perspectives cultivated in Library and Information Science are not limited to libraries. They are utilized as the "ability to organize information and deliver it to people" in diverse fields such as publishing, education, IT, mass media, and government administration. The small challenge that began 75 years ago as Japan's first library school has now grown into a discipline that supports the knowledge society of the digital age. The Library and Information Science major will continue to open up new possibilities for connecting books and information, and people and knowledge.

This article was published in the "Stained Glass" section of Juku Summer 2026 (No. 331).