Communication Center in Kyoto, Japan Plans Staff Search

[Hillel Weintraub]

(This is being cross-posted to multiple library-related listservs.)

This September, Doshisha International Jr/Sr High School in Kyoto, Japan
will be opening a new Communication Center which will combine our present
library and computer facilities and develop what we hope will be a
revolutionary way for students to access, relate to, and create information
and knowledge. We hope to create new meaning for the ideas of
"interaction", "cooperation", "research" and "learning designs" through our
work in this center. We are attempting to create a space where books and
new technologies can be equally valued for the pleasure and knowledge they
can give. We are now making plans for finding people who can help us in
this Center.

GENERAL INFORMATION: Doshisha International Jr/Sr High School (DIHS) is
located in a lovely, quiet rural area, 30 minutes from Kyoto or Nara and
one hour from Osaka.  DIHS has 1100 students (12 years old to 18 years
old), and about 90 teachers (full and part-time). We are different from
other overseas "International Schools" in two ways. Our students are mostly
Japanese kids who have lived and studied outside of Japan. About 65% of
them fall into this group known in Japan as "returnees." They are
bi-lingual and bi-cultural to varying degrees, and it is a large part of
our mission as teachers to develop the linguistic and cultural knowledge
that they have been exposed to earlier in their lives. The second way that
we are different from most "international schools" is that our curriculum
is basically in Japanese  and is similar to "normal" Japanese schools,
though as a private school we have much freedom to explore teaching methods
and materials. Also we have a well-developed and advanced program in
English Education, and that is one of the strengths of our school. During
the past decade, our school has gained a reputation within Japan for
innovative English education which makes use of multimedia.


We will be looking for people to fill the following positions:
#1: Lib/Cyb-rarian
This position will be for a person bi-lingual in Japanese and English, and
educated and experienced in handling both book and other new media. We're
looking for a person who can be flexible and innovative and work together
as a part of a new team to help us create learning spaces where new media
education and knowledge research and creation can be developed. We want to
build on the concept of a library and media center to create something new.
Much work will have to be done in both staff education and student support.
The more technical knowledge and experience in working with new media, the
better.
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Position #2: Media Specialist or Information Specialist
 This position will be for a person who can help us develop our staff and
our materials technically and also be a part of our Communication Center
team. Knowledge of the Japanese language is not essential, but would be
very helpful as most of our teachers and half of our students prefer to
communicate in Japanese. Experience in setting up a network or running a
network, developing homepages for a small organization, knowledge of Unix
(particularly BSD) and html would all be pluses. Experience in setting up
an intranet or some sort of bbs system would be valuable. Knowledge of
database structure and development would be useful as we will be trying to
develop a unique database for this center.
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We need to find out if there are people who are qualified and interested in
working with us. If you have some interest or questions, please contact me
at once. At the end of February, we will examine the various responses and
proceed to our next step which will involve more specific negotiations with
those who respond. We are hoping to have the new staff join us when the
school year begins this April but a later date may be possible.

Hillel

Hillel Weintraub, Director, Media Committee
Doshisha International Jr/Sr High School
Tatara, Tanabe, Kyoto 610-03, Japan
Phone: 81-774-65-8911; Fax: 81-774-65-8990
school homepage at http://www.doshisha-intnl.tanabe.kyoto.jp