I am delighted to introduce Katherine Matsuura as the new Japanese Studies Librarian at Stanford’s East Asia Library. With a wealth of experience and expertise in librarianship, research, and digital initiatives in Japanese Studies, Katherine is a wonderful fit for this position.
Katherine comes to us from the Japan Digital Research Center at Harvard University where she serves as the Japanese Digital Scholarship Librarian and plays a crucial role in supporting teaching, learning, research and digital projects in the Japanese language. She also served on Harvard’s Web Archiving Working Group, the Digital Scholarship Support Group, and the executive committee of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. Before Harvard, she held positions at libraries and museums at Yale and Duke. Early in her career, Katherine lived and worked in East Asia for sixteen years (Japan & Hong Kong).
Having organized and taught workshops on digital pedagogy, web-publishing, text-mining, IIIF, and an “Everything Digital” introductory workshop for newly arriving graduate students, Katherine has established herself as an expert and respected collaborator in the field of Japanese digital humanities. She has contributed significantly to the community through her leadership of collaborative projects, such as Japan Disasters Digital Archive and the Constitutional Revision in Japan project. Further, she is actively involved in national organizations, such as the Council on East Asian Libraries as a member of the Executive Board (2023-2026), the Committee on Japanese Materials (2023-2026), and the Electronic Resources Metadata Standards Best Practices (2023-2026).
Katherine received her BA from Grinnell College, completed her MSLS at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earned an MA in East Asian Studies from Duke University and an MPhil in History from Yale University.
Beyond her professional achievements, Katherine has an appreciation for audiobooks and listening to new works of fiction while commuting to work and taking long walks. She also finds joy in weekly online “FamJam” sessions that she and her children and husband have continued for more than 15-years, even while living in different parts of the world.
As Katherine steps into the role of Japanese Studies Librarian at the East Asia Library, we look forward to working with her to expand the collection, broaden outreach efforts, and deepen ties with the faculty and students. Her dedication to the expansion and improvement of access to Japan-related materials will bring new possibilities for serving our patrons, strengthening our community, and making our collections more accessible to research, teaching and enjoyment.
Katherine will begin her tenure with the East Asia Library on January 22, 2024.