<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On Nov 10, 2009, at 8:51 AM, Roger Macy wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div><font face="Arial">Marcus said: 'If there IS one pressing problem it is that they keep the list secret.'</font></div><div><font face="Arial"></font> </div><div><font face="Arial">Surely it's more than that: this is the first time I've understood that there IS a prepared list. Surely, the JF's commitments to rights-holders cannot extend to keeping the EXISTENCE of a list secret, a la SCAP ?</font></div></div></span></blockquote><div><br></div>The existence of the catalog is not a secret, but its contents are. The first time I inquired about it, the exact response was: "We cannot make our film collection list public due to our agreement with the distributors."</div><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div><font face="Arial"></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">To borrow an americanism, why isn't this a no-brainer ? Why can't the JF say on their websites something to the effect that</span></div><div><font face="Arial">" The Foundation maintains a collection of film prints in various formats, subtitled in english, roughly comprising the periods :-</font></div><div><font face="Arial">1920s n</font></div><div><font face="Arial">... nn</font></div><div><font face="Arial">2000s nn</font></div><div><font face="Arial">The Foundation welcomes enquiries from aaaaas and bbbbbs about the supply of prints, subject to prior agreement with the rights-holders and will be happy to give further advice."</font></div></div></span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I'm not sure which JF site you're looking at. The sites for all the regional offices might not include a description of the A-V materials program. I notice that the London office site does say: "The Japan Foundation holds a stock of Japanese films (35mm or 16mm) with English subtitles in Tokyo for loan (subject to availability)." The main site in Japan elaborates on this and includes a comprehensive list of overseas screenings and retrospectives, past and present <<a href="http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/culture/media/oversea/index.html">http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/culture/media/oversea/index.html</a>>. While they don't say that they welcome inquiries from anyone, they do mention "joint sponsorship with film specialist organizations". This seems reasonable, given the resources they actually have available.</div><div><br></div><div>Aside from the secret catalog, the disconnect here is perhaps that the JF wants all inquires to come through the regional offices first, but the web sites for some of them may be less comprehensive. The main site could also have more detailed information, but it's not totally derelict. Building a really good web site actually isn't a no-brainer, and thus many organizations have mediocre-to-bad sites. The main JF site seems generally reasonable. I never feel frustrated looking for information there.</div><div><br></div><div>The film catalog, though, is a no-brainer. If the secrecy issue were resolved, they could just put it into their regular database, along with the hundreds of other media items already there (e.g., NHK documentaries with titles like "Japanese vagueness"). It looks like they have the electronic infrastructure in place. A public catalog would also make it possible to set up a standard workflow for film requests going through the JFIC site. It could even save their staff some time.</div><div><br></div><div>M</div></div></body></html>