The life and thoughts of Mori Ohgai (1862-1922, Ohgai was a pen name) who was one of the most famous Japanese modern novelists in the Meiji Era are described biographically. Ohgai was born at the village of Tsuwanomachi in Shimane prefecture. Since a very young age, he began studying Confucianism with a private tutor and later continued his training at the Yorokan, the fief school, where he studied confucianism, classical Japanese literature, Dutch, and medical languages. And then he was graduated as the youngest medical student (20 years old) from the University of Tokyo in 1881. After enlisting in the army, he went to Germany as an army medic, He studied there hygienics under two internationally renowned scholars of the day, Max von Pettenkoffer and Robert Koch. Returning to Japan, he contributed in great measure to the development of modern Japanese literature and army medicine, In short, four items are discussed, i. e.; Ohgai's views on socialism; about “A New Aesthetic” and “The Philosophy of the Unconscious” written by the philosopher Eduard von Hartman which contributed much to the development of his literary personality; a new genre of biographical writing created by Ohgai; and the last years of his life.

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The paper describes how the author became interested in medical libraries in the University of Tokyo and later in the 50 years' development of the Japan Medical Library Association (JMLA) of which he became president later. After the World War II, the Association suffered various difficulties as the country under occupation. During that period JMLA was much indebted to the Public Health and Welfare Section (PHW) of the Occupation Army, who kindly donated to JMLA member libraries a large number of medical books and periodicals published during the war. Moreover, free photocopy service of medical articles not available in Japan was offered by the Army Medical Library (AML). Mr. Joseph Groesbeck of AML was dispatched in 1948 and played an active part in this matter. In the same period the president and executives of the American Medical Association (AMA) came to Japan and built up a firm partnership. As the result the American physicians sent to JMLA a great number of used medical journals. In 1950, PHW sent the author to U.S.A. as a member of the Japanese national leader group. As a result friendly contributions were made from U. S. A. to JMLA. A new central medical library was established in the University of Tokyo in November 1961. One half of the total sum of expenditure was donated by the China Medical Board (CMB). This became a model of contemporary medical libraries-in Japanese universities. The author played a role in the negotiation with CMB in this matter. He became the first president of the new Medical Library. In the next year the author retired due to the age limit and in October of the same year also retired from the presidency of JMLA he had served since 1955. In June 1963, seven librarians attended the second International Congress of Medical Librarianship and the author acted as their leader. The travel expense and entry fees was officially supported by U. S. A. authorities. In closing the author stresses the important role in the future of medical library activities in Japan.

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The Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library is a large reference library with materials classified according to subject matter. It is said that public libraries in Japan are weak in the sciences. In this paper the author did research on the medical collection of the science division in the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library and considered its organization. As a result the acquisition rate was found to be 34% on the average. The acquisition rate of clinical medical books is particularly low: dentistry --0%, electrocardiography, phonocardiography, electroencephalography --4%, diagnostics --6%, radiology, nuclear medicine --7%, internal medicine, pediatrics --17%. As a result of other research it was found that the number of scientific books in the medical collection is also low. Our library is increasingly expected to increase both the quantity of the collection and the quality of the reference service. The author presents outlines to examine standards for future book selection.

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There are about 8, 500 hospitals in Japan. However, major organizations in the health sciences library field, such as the Japan Medical Library Association (JMLA), the Japan Hospital Library Association (JHLA), and the Association of Kinki Hospital Libraries (AKHL) are not fully aware of the present situation of the individual hospital libraries. Therefore the author conducted a survey of JHLA in the fall of 1980 and AKHL in the summer of 1981. The survey concentrates on the following: 1) type of hospital and library floor space, 2) library facilities, 3) library manpower, 4) library holdings, 5) library budget, 6) library users, 7) library publications, 8) reference service, and 9) clinical medical librarian service. Using this data, she discusses both the present status and future prospects of hospital libraries in Japan. She offers two suggestions:1) the establishment of a consortium based on biomedical information centers throughout Japan, and 2) strengthening the positions of libraries in hospitals and the development of diverse library activities such as “Team-Care” and “LATCH” (Literature Attached to Chart).

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New Japanese journals published in medical, dental, and pharmaceutical sciences in 1981 are discussed. They are grouped by publication body as follows, commercial journals, institution or society journals, and university or college memoirs, and then by publication type as follows, annual publications, collected lectures, symposia, proceedings, and preprints, Their trends in each subject field, which librarians should understand, of new journals are described including the change of journal titles.

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A new system of photocopy exchange among national university libraries started in April, 1979. A survey on requests for photocopies from national university libraries to the Medical Library, University of Tokyo, was conducted and the following became clear. First, requests from non-medical libraries are increasing. The author believes that requests by non-medical personal are growing in number. Secondly, requests from non-medical users differ from those of medical users. So it is necessary for journal collections to be planned with due consideration of this fact.

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The outline and properties of the new library established in Hiroshima University Medical School are introduced. The author stresses the importance of the contact of designers with librarians in developing a new library. As the maintenance of new library, the humidity and dust are excluded with air-conditioning. However, Energy saving for equipment and stacks are also considered.

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BRS, one of the three largest online bibliographic retrieval services in the United States is described, with an outline of the company, its services, system commands and databases. An introduction to Japan's JIP/BRS, which began its online service in December 1981 follows. Finally, an outline of the features, including a sample search, of the PRE-MED medical database produced by BRS is presented.

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[in Japanese]

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