The Center on Japanese Economy and Business Contributes Publications to DigitalCommonsColumbia  (NEW YORK, July 28, 2006) The Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB) at Columbia Business School has become the first academic group within the University to contribute electronic versions of its publications to DigitalCommonsColumbia, the new University Libraries-sponsored “institutional repository” pilot program. The full back runs of three Center publication series—Working Papers, Occasional Papers and Event Reports—are now available within DigitalCommonsColumbia, where they will be broadly available to scholars and researchers worldwide and where they will be permanently archived as part of the record of Columbia’s scholarly output. Future publications in these series will be deposited by CJEB staff directly into the DigitalCommons shortly after they are published. The original print versions of the CJEB publications will continue to be available at Columbia’s Business School library.“This valuable partnership between the Libraries and CJEB will help achieve the Center’s mission to promote knowledge and understanding of Japanese business and economics in an international context,” said Hugh Patrick, director of CJEB. “We are delighted to be part of such a significant digital enterprise in the scholarly community.”The new DigitalCommonsColumbia system provides powerful full-text indexing, searching and browsing of content in an easy-to-use interface. The system also allows for automatic submission of content to Google Scholar and to other commercial and non-commercial indexing and aggregation services. A key feature of the system is the assignment of a “permanent URL” to each electronic document in this system, which allows it to be reliably cited and accessed over the course of time.As part of its effort to begin collecting and archiving the University’s significant intellectual output, the Libraries will be expanding its institutional repository pilot program over the next year to incorporate electronic publications from other departments and academic groups. This type of electronic content, which may or may not ever appear in commercial publications, is at great risk of deterioration or erasure over time, thereby undermining the integrity of the scholarly record for future generations.“This effort is part of a new Libraries initiative to begin collecting, archiving and preserving the University’s scholarly and research output in electronic form,” said Stephen Paul Davis, Director of the Libraries Digital Program. “We believe our institutional repository program represents an important investment in Columbia’s overall ‘knowledge infrastructure,’ one that will enable us to better serve scholars’ needs now and in the future.” According to Davis, the initiative will be expanded over time to incorporate material from other departments, centers and academic groups.Earlier this year, the University Libraries launched DigitalCommonsColumbia with electronic versions of all Columbia doctoral dissertations from 1997 forward.  In moving toward implementation of an institutional repository Columbia joins many other libraries in the United States and abroad in addressing the issues raised by the growth of electronic publishing and the resulting, critically important need to stabilize, archive and sustain this content over the long term.Columbia University Libraries is one of the top ten academic library systems in the nation, with 9.2 million volumes, over 65,650 serials, as well as extensive collections of electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, and other nonprint formats. The collections and services are organized into 22 libraries, supporting specific academic or professional disciplines. Columbia Libraries employs more than 400 professional and support staff to assist faculty, students, and researchers in their academic endeavors.The Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB) was established at Columbia Business School in 1986 to promote knowledge and understanding of Japanese business and economics in an international context. The Center is not only a research organization but also is widely recognized for its programs, which provide prominent speakers from the public and private sectors a forum for collaboration and reflection on Japan, the United States and the global economy. In support of its mission, CJEB organizes and supports research projects, workshops, symposia, conferences, training and curricular development programs, scholarly and professional exchanges and library and computer-based resource initiatives. Core faculty members are Japan specialists drawn from Columbia’s Business School, Law School, Economics Department and School of International and Public Affairs. For more information, see: http://www.gsb.columbia.edu/cjebThe Columbia Libraries Digital Program Division works to improve the coordination and effectiveness of Columbia’s library-related digital initiatives. Its scope includes the development and support of the Libraries official public and staff websites; development of enhanced interfaces and tools for the Columbia community’s use of databases, e-journals and other e-resources; coordination of internal and external collection digitization and web-publishing programs; and implementation and management of Columbia’s institutional repository programs, including Columbia Image Bank and DigitalCommonsColumbia. The Division’s website can be found at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/units/ldpd/ The Thomas J. Watson Library of Business & Economics is one of the largest collections in the United States for the study of management, finance, economics, industry and related fields. Special focus is placed on the topics of accounting, business economics, business history, management of organizations, management science, operations management, corporate and international finance, international economics, corporate relations, security analysis, marketing, money and financial markets, and labor. The library’s collection reflects the Business School’s and the Department of Economics’ emphasis on the economics of developed and developing nations, international business conditions and practices, global trade, emerging markets and international securities trading. For more information, see: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/business/index.html  -END-07/28/06 ICL