Library and Information Science

University libraries in Japan are faced with great problems posed by the growth of literature, the increasing cost of publication, and by the rising personnel cost. This study attempts to survey the growth of 168 Japanese university libraries from 1965 to 1980. The data is derived from the Statistics on Libraries in Japan, pertaining to 86 national university libraries and 82 private university libraries.

In the period covered in this study, the number of new volumes adds annually has been growing at a rate of 4–10% per year, with the acquisition rate of volumes of the private university libraries has been outstripping the acquisition rate of national university libraries. The difference in the number of volumes per student between national university libraries and the private university libraries, however, has not been reduced, because the number of students in private universities has been growing at the about the same rate as the acquisition of new volumes adds. As well, the difference in size between the largest and smallest libraries is now being reduced.