PRIMASTAR ON THE BOOKS AT OXFORD

2006/11/19

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

20 November 2006

PRIMASTAR ON THE BOOKS AT OXFORD

Oxford students will now be getting their books delivered by Nissan thanks to the company’s donation of a Primastar dCi SE High Roof to the network of University libraries, one of which is housed at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies.

The Institute’s library is just one of 30 across Oxford which will now be serviced by the Bodleian Library’s Primastar.  If a student wants a book that isn’t in his or her usual library, it can be ordered from any of the Oxford University Libraries’ network of reserve stores, and then delivered usually a day later.  This adds up to around 1000 publications every day – 250,000 a year – that will be moved by the Primastar.

David Perrow, Acting Deputy Director of the Oxford University Library Services, recently took delivery of the van from Nissan Motor (GB)’s Communications Director, Wayne Bruce.  They were joined by Dr Ann Waswo, University Lecturer in Modern Japanese History, Dr Ian Neary, Director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Professor Roger Goodman, Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, and Izumi Tytler the Bodleian Japanese librarian. 

The Primastar will become an important part of Oxford life.  David Perrow explained: “Van deliveries are an essential element of our library service to all our users – we are extremely grateful for Nissan’s donation which is very timely as the old van was coming

to the end of its life.”  The van’s driver, Etienne Mareau, finds the Primastar easy to manoeuvre helped by its standard parking sensors, easy to load helped by its high roof, and very comfortable due its car-like cabin.  This is just as well as Etienne spends almost seven hours a day crawling through Oxford’s traffic.  Ann Waswo, speaking on behalf of the Nissan Institute, added: “getting hold of the books we need, quickly and in our own building saves time, is convenient and is cost effective.”

In March, Nissan President and CEO, Carlos Ghosn announced a £1.5 million benefaction from Nissan Motor Co., Ltd to the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at an address marking the start of its 25th Anniversary celebrations.

The Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies was founded in 1981 at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford following a donation from Nissan Motor Co., Ltd It was set up to promote study of the history, culture, politics and economy of modern Japan and is today recognised as one of the leading academic institutions in Europe focused on the study of modern Japan.  The benefaction marked a renewed association between Nissan and the Institute. It will ensure funding of the Institute's core academic posts in social anthropology, economics, politics and modern Japanese history.

Japanese teaching in Oxford goes back almost exactly 100 years. Until 1980, it was a small undergraduate programme teaching what was then considered a very exotic language and focused on pre-modern history and literature. Nissan's initial benefaction in 1980 created three further teaching posts in new disciplines and the Nissan Institute itself, then located in a refurbished college building. Ten years later a further endowment from Nissan grew the teaching posts by another two and enabled the construction of bespoke, new premises.

In 1991, HIH Prince Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, broke the new ground for this purpose-built Nissan Institute building in Oxford. In April 1993 when the new building was completed, the Bodleian Japanese Library – a new dependent library devoted exclusively to the study of Japan – opened its doors to readers.  The Institute and the Library have occupied the facility ever since while further donations over the next four years created new lectureships.

Nearly 80 postgraduate students in Japanese Studies have completed doctoral degrees since 1981, most of them taking up academic posts around the world. Furthermore, the Institute has also established a series of publications on Japan, now with over 60 titles. Due in part to contributions from the academic staff of the Nissan Institute, Japanese is the most popular undergraduate programme in Oriental Studies. 

The Japanese library has also benefited from Nissan’s involvement.  Since 1979, the scope of the collection has expanded to include a significant holding of works on modern history and social sciences in Japan since the mid 19^th century. This has been built up in response to the research needs of the staff of the Nissan Institute supported by recurrent grants from the Nissan benefaction.  The collection is now the best library of Japanese social science books and other information in Europe.

Thanks to Nissan's latest benefaction, the Institute expects to double the number of students entering doctoral programme and to develop more specialist, high level language teaching as well as training in social sciences methodology.  The Primastar, donated by Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd, will be playing its role in helping this happen.

ends…

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

All news releases and pictures can be downloaded from the Newspress website at www.newspress.co.uk

51710/201106