The digital library has 1,800+ books in English and in Japanese, including many Japanese language learning resources, and all sorts of fiction and nonfiction genres: manga, literature, art, history, culture, society, cooking and food, etc.
I just checked out a book called JapaneseāEnglish Translation by Judy Wakabayashi, and Iāve really been enjoying it! Iāve already added a bunch of books to my wishlist to read when I have more time.
As far as I can tell, it is currently only available to residents of America and Canada, unfortunately.
To apply, please complete the form at the link below. Applicants need to be 14 years or older and confirmation emails will be sent out at the end of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays
This is absolutely fantastic! I didnāt try to make an account, but I was able to read samples from a Japanese IP address, so it might not be as geographically limited as they intend. The variety looks great and Iām loving their selection choices.
I believe you need to provide a (US) state and zip code and a phone number in the library card application (at least on the US side; I havenāt looked at Canadaās), but Iāmā¦ not sure if they exactly verify that youāre in the US beyond that? I guess someone who lives outside of the US could always try to sign up and see what happens?
Oh ho, my google number gonna finally come in handy. I recommend getting a google number while you have an American sim card for anyone who does. It can become another number that can be used overseas. Iām limited to text only with it, but itās still hella useful in situations like this and you can keep the number even if you change service providers.
That said I am a bit bummed that as far as modern-ish lit goes itās pretty slim pickings and I donāt see myself utilizing it. I did see ććććć®ćć³ and ćććæć®å¤å however, so some books popular on these forums did make the cut!
Yeah, Iām hoping that they will continue to improve the collection and add more books. Itās a pretty new library, I think, so itās currently a bit of a starter collection
They do have some popular textbook series, including Genki, Japanese for Busy People and Marugoto, as well as A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced). So I think thereās plenty there outside of their basic fiction collection, though, which might not be available for free (legally ) elsewhere.
Really cool that you happened to mention that book ā Iām going to have to check this out. Thereās actually this blog run by a visual novel translator I read on occasion because they have some really fascinating insights on that process, and they frequently reference Wakabayashi, here, for example.
Ooh, thatās super neat, thanks! Iām glad that Wakabayashiās work has practical use for another translator; thatās a pretty strong recommendation for me to finish this book .
If you keep reading that blog, you might end up feeling that itch to try translation yourselfā¦
This thing is rather absurd. It is a digital library with opening hours and limited numbers of copies of each book?! Why limit it to two countries wheres Japan Foundation proudly announces in one of the pages that they are present in 23 countries?? Or do they lend physical books - that wouldnāt make any sense for grammar books?
I think those are just part of the limitations of using Overdrive as a platform. Book publishers in America are very greedy, and theyāve forced libraries to heavily limit the lending of ebooks. Several publishers wonāt allow their ebooks to be leant out by libraries at all. I work at a library, and ebooks are incredibly expensive for us to buy, and we have to spend a lot of extra money if we want to be able to lend out more copies of a book at once.
Unfortunately this is just how it is. Itās a very frustrating system, but the problems stem from how the publishing world operates, which heavily limits what libraries can do.
EDIT: For an example of the kind of drama that ebook lending causes, look at whatās going on with the Internet Archive right nowā¦
Well, if they do that, Iām not sure theyād be able to lend their ebooks in America at allā¦ . Weāre lucky enough to have Overdrive here; we almost canāt even have that. If publishing companies had their way, Overdrive wouldnāt exist, either.
I hope that the Japan Foundation will be able to expand their services, but there are plenty of obstacles in the way of offering this kind of thing, so I expect it to be an uphill battle for them, trying to navigate what different platforms will or wonāt let them do.
