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264 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 7, 2015

public library was considered as a tool for disseminating democracy. Japanese public libraries at
that time were unable to take this responsibility. So public library reform began as early as 1946.
There were four main steps in the reform. First, to establish CIE libraries, which introduced
American style public library services and models to Japanese people and library community.
Second, to appoint CIE library officers, whose duty was to guide the Japanese government
and library community and coordinate the Japanese side and the U.S. side in a way of “Friday
Meeting”. Third, to promote public library legislation, which was the core work of the reform.
Forth, to develop training system by setting up library science in tertiary education like Keio
University and in-service training around Japan.
From 1946 to 1950, under the mechanism formed by library officers as a core, Japanese
government as the executive, and Japanese library community as a participant, Japanese public
libraries had been transformed in idea, service, operation and professional training. There were
three main stages in the reform. The first stage (1946.3-1947.4) was called “the time of Keeney”.
Keeney, the first CIE library officer, planned to build a national network of public library services,
which finally failed to be carried out. In the second stage (1947.5-1949.3), the Japanese library
community made many drafts of library act. Because of the cold war at that time, the GHQ/SCAP
didn’t have its focus on public library reform so that legislation was delayed. In the third stage
(1949.4-1950.8), Japanese library community realized that close relationship with the Japanese
government was the key to successful library legislation and the Library Act was finally passed in
1950.
In the reform, America acted as a conductor and planner who prioritized its own interests. The
reform was basically successful, but at the same time problematical. Japanese government, the
particular executive, had followed American’s steps rigidly. Japanese library community had
participated in the entire reform. After Library Act was passed, Japanese library community strived
to put the principles and requirements of the law in place, so that Japanese public libraries could
gradually catch up with the levels of Europe and United States.
The reform, an epitome of education, culture and society reform in Japan, was a great event in
Japanese public library history. It was also an example of American culture exportation to postwar
Japan, which led to Japanese Americanization both in material and spirit aspects.

A question answering method over library Linked Data

1 ∗
Shiyan OU & Zhengui TANG

Since the advent of Linked Data, more and more structured data have been published on the Web
in Linked Data format, including a large amount of bibliographic data, academic information and

* Correspondence should be addressed to Shiyan OU, Email: oushiyan@nju.edu.cn, ORCID: 0000-0001-8617-6987