No one has an optimistic view of the recent economic climate in Japan, but some active policies are being taken in terms of assisting entrepreneurs and venture businesses. However, the fruits of such labor are sometimes difficult to see. Given this situation, we would like to study business assisting services at U.S. public libraries in order to recognize the need for and build similar new policies in Japan. U.S. public libraries play a very active role in vitalizing local industries. We would like to introduce how they are dealing with entrepreneurial support and business assisting for small and medium enterprises. Furthermore, our objective is to present what role public libraries in Japan could play, in terms of creating new businesses and strengthening the management foundation of small and medium enterprises. We are inviting three guests from the United States to introduce their respective cases. Mr. William Walker is a director in charge of research libraries at The New York Public Library, which is renowned for having the most advanced business assisting services. Mr. Alvin Roselin is a chairman of SCORE, Service Corp of Retired Executives, which is conducting free business consulting services in a tie-up with public libraries. Finally, Ms. Jennifer Keohane is a Business Outreach Librarian at Simsbury Public Library, which is highly regarded as one of the best libraries in the U.S., and known for providing business services rooted in the local community.
* Part of the symposium proceedings will be videotaped and broadcast on the internet in the near future at the RIETI website. Any printed matter will also be available on our website.