SURVEY OF DEMAND FOR JAPANESE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL SERIAL LITERATURE

There is a growing awareness worldwide of the importance of the information available in Japanese scientific, technical and commercial literature. A survey of the demand for Japanese serial literature was carried out at the British Library Document Supply Centre in late 1985, and the results were compared with the demand for literature in general. Results suggest that the Japanese are more interested in western developments than other countries are in Japanese science and technology; in other words, the language barrier affects westerners far more than it affects the Japanese. Academic institutions are the predominant UK users of Japanese literature, followed closely by industry/commerce. With overseas users, most use comes from the industrial/commercial sector. A significant amount of Japanese scientific, technical and business literature is largely underused: Japanese journals seeking to expand their readership would need to consider increasing their English language content.