Nakajima Library
Open for Students 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
The Nakajima Library is always open to students and never “sleeps.”
We provide an environment where students can concentrate on their studies at any time and without time constraints, responding to their desire to learn. Designed as a “Book Coliseum” which means a theater space where books and people meet, the library is also an “arena of knowledge” where students face books and devote themselves to their studies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In this calm and peaceful space with beautiful Akita cedar trees and an umbrella-shaped roof that utilizes traditional techniques, students are inspired by the sight of their fellow students and study hard until late into the night.
The library’s name, “Nakajima Library,” honors the achievements of the university’s first president, Mineo Nakajima, in founding and developing the university. The library is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In June 2013, the library was accredited as a United Nations Deposit Library.
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Open Hours
| General Public | Weekdays: 8:30-22:00 (8:30-18:00 in January & February) Sat, Sun, Holidays & Vacation Periods: 10:00-18:00 (closed during the New Year holidays) |
|---|---|
| High School Student Card Holders The number of High School Student Cards for FY2024 reached maximum. We are not accepting applications until April now. Thank you for your understanding. | 6:00 – 22:00 / 365 days |
| AIU Students Faculty & Staff | 24 hrs / 365 days |
*To maintain a quiet environment, please refrain from taking photos with cameras or mobile phones.
The library will be closed during the Collection Inventory period in August for public visitors.
Holdings
| Books | 86,446 (53,123 Non-Japanese books; 33,323 Japanese books) |
| Journals | 219 (119 Overseas titles; 100 Japanese titles) |
| CDs and DVDs | 4,659 |
| e-Books | Over 470,000 titles |
| Electronic Journals | Over 10,200 titles |
| Databases | 5 |
The Nakajima Library was designed by architect Mitsuru Senda and has won numerous awards, such as the Murano Togo Prize, the JIA Award, the International Architecture Awards 2010, the Good Design Award, among others.
Hybrid Library Supporting Applied International Liberal Arts
The Nakajima Library is a hybrid library consisting of paper and digital materials, mainly western books, and is a “hub of knowledge” supporting applied international liberal arts education at Akita International University. In particular, most of the digital media materials are academic information in English, and are collected and adopted from internationally acclaimed sources. These are provided with the aim of helping students acquire research and thesis writing skills equivalent to those of overseas university students.
Students can access the digital media materials provided by the University at any time and from anywhere in the world. In addition, online discovery services and citation information retrieval tools allow students to quickly and accurately obtain the information necessary for their academic studies. The library also offers workshops on how to use these digital resources and an online reference service to answer students’ questions, providing academic support appropriate for the age of DX.