The main subjects I have been studying continuously and an interested in recently are divided into the following three points; library service in itself, community library planning, and efficiency and standardization of routine work through business affairs. The former two belong to my research projects since my undergraduate days. These are “Services in Undergraduate Library” and “Locational Analysis of Public Libraries” respectively. The third is what I have an interest in at present, while taking charge of technical processing of foreign books in our university library. It is a preparation of a relative index of foreign books as a supplementary tool for the classification of foreign books.
Pointing out these three topics, I re-examined the scope of my research and problem awareness.

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This essay gives an outline of my alternative approach on book-selecting theory, which refers to the frame-work of Ürgen Habermas' social theory. The functions of public library, i.e. the principale rules of book-selection, are prescribed by the relationship to cultural communication which occupies a position relating to political system and the member of society. The participation to the cultural communication was regarded as the condition of citizens in liberalist political theory, for its ‘civic publicness' was also regarded as the basis of autonomical judgement of citizens.
On the other hand, the welfare state ordered public library to meet the basic need of nation. But in higher advanced capitalist state, both the social distance between cultural communication and individuals, and the scope that the concept 'need' means， expand extremely, so that the traditional political legitimacy of public library become vague, and this crisis accelates for it to adopt the radical democracy-like ‘demand theory' to acquire the direct support of its customers. But both its effects of services and its legitimacy lacks universality in practice. Moreover, the contemporary chronic crisis of the financial affairs enforces on the public libraries to fall into dillemma. Now we need to renewal the liberalist intersubjective approach of book-selecting, and also need avoid the defects originating from the individualist perspectives of liberalist, and the empricist faults in welfare state. The new rule of book-selecting method is to rise the level of openness of the contemporary cultural communications mediated by the market systems, which always and already develops the publicness in professional sphere and also in mass media, but has many obstacles for the common citizens to get access it, semantical, social and economical, or has many paradoxical problems between its openness and maturity.
To solve these problems, the ‘publicness' needs to be re-constructed sociologically outside the cultural communications in society, and to be understood by means of entering the intersubjective world inside them.

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(I)-In Vol. 34. pp. 178-184.
It was not until the late sixties or early seventies that undergraduate students could borrow books from their university central libraries without any permission from their professors. This article traced the changes in the borrowing regulations for undergraduate students from the Meiji era (1868-1912) through the Taisho era (1913-1926).
In the Meiji era, students could hardly get textbooks written in foreign languages, so they were allowed to check out such textbooks from libraries with their professors' permission. Concerning other books besides textbooks, for instance at the Imperial University, which was the oldest university in Japan, undergraduate students could take them out only during summer vacation with their professors' permission.
There were no private universities in the Meiji era. Private colleges had such small collections and so few students when they were established that there were no strict rules in their libraries. According to 'Daigakurei', some private colleges were approved as universities by the government in 1920. In Rissho University and St. Paul's University (Rikkyo) libraries we found records showing that undergraduate students checked out books during the academic term.
Generally speaking, in the early days, library regulations were fairly simple and undergracluate students could borrow books easily, but as enrollments increased, library regulations became stricter.

(II)-In this volume
When the Great Kanto earrthquake occurred in 1923, the Tokyo Imperial University and other private university libraries located in the Kanda area were damaged. The Tokyo Imperial University built a new library in 1928. Open stacks were put in the free access reading room. It was very convenient for students, because in the old library they had to get a professor's permission in order to get into the stack room. New regulations were made, but there were no rules to allow undergraduate students to check out books. This situation continued for 34 years. Among national university libraries, the Nagoya University library was the first to allow Undergraduate students to check out books without a professor's permission.
Private university libraries adopted this rule from the beginning of the sixties and gradllally it became more popular.
After the widespread university disturbances from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s, libraries also realized that they needed to serve not only faculties but also undergraduate students. The number of books which could be checked out was increased and as well as the number of books in open stacks.
In conclusion, university libraries Should have two functions. One is for research and the other is for education. In other words they have to serve faculty members and undergraduate students equally. Through tracing the history of university libraries, the author found that in order to change regulations or adopt new plans, librarians must cooperate with faculty members and administration.

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