Our poster aims to introduce the Academic Link, a new concept that Chiba University launched in April 2011 to promote students‘ active learning. The university library is spearheading the institution‘s educational reform with this challenging and ambitious educational concept. The goal of Academic Link is to foster information and learning skills, which would facilitate students‘ lifelong learning to meet the demands of the evolving knowledge-based society. The hub of this scheme, the Academic Link Center, is composed of staff from the library, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Center and the Center for General Education of the university. This mix of staff reflects the three major elements essential for educational reform: the provision of diverse content required for learning and education, the provision of ICTs to use that content, and the modernization of educational programs and teaching methods. The Academic Link has sought to achieve its goals by creating these three functions: Content Lab, Teaching Hub, and Active Learning Space. Such functions are to be realized by implementing the seven projects focusing 1)the provision of content, including digitized books, course packs and lectures 2) the provision of learning space to meet the students’ various needs, and 3) the provision of human support for learning, including “peer support”. In our poster, we shall report the progress of our projects and indicate some lessons we learned, including copyrights clearance issues.

Hiroya Takeuchi
Hiroya Takeuchi Chiba University

Hiroya Takeuchi received a BA and a MA in Library and Information Science from Keio University in 1985 and 1987 respectively. After having been experienced in both library practice and teaching, and program implementation in an international organization, he was appointed at Chiba University as associate professor of library and information science in 2003, and professor in 2008. He has also served as University Librarian and Director of the newly-established Academic Link Center since April 2011. His research interests include information policies, university library management and services, and scholarly communication.

Dr. Kazuhiko Kawamoto
Dr. Kazuhiko Kawamoto Chiba University

Dr. Kazuhiko Kawamoto was born in Japan in 1974. He received the B.E., M.E. and D.E degrees from Chiba University, Japan, in 1997, 1999, 2002, respectively. From 2002 to 2005, he was an assistant professor with Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. From 2005 to 2009, he was an associate professor with Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan. He is currently an associate professor with Chiba University, Japan. His research interests include computer vision, pattern recognition, and statistical signal processing. He earned the best young scientist research paper award of international conference on fuzzy systems in 2004 and several other awards. He has been a member of the international program committee of several international conferences.

Yuji Shirakawa
Yuji Shirakawa Chiba University

Yuji Shirakawa received B.A. in Law from Meiji University in 2000, B.A. in letters and M.A. in Education from Waseda University in 2002 and 2005. His major is sociology of education and policy science of higher education. He was appointed as research associate of the School of Education, Waseda University in 2006. After that, he was appointed as the assistant professor of the Center of General Education, Chiba University in 2008. In April 2011, he had additional post at Academic Link Center, Chiba University. His research interests include educational policies, university education and the learning outcomes.

Dr. Yudai Anegawa
Dr. Yudai Anegawa Chiba University

Dr. Yudai Anegawa received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in letters from Chiba University in 1996 and 2000, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in letters from Chiba University in 2008. In October 2008, he was appointed as the assistant professor of the Center of General Education, and since 2011, he has been with the Academic Link Center, Chiba University. His research interests include modern history of Europe, history of the education, education of the history, and methodology of university education.

Chihiro Kunimoto
Chihiro Kunimoto Chiba University

Chihiro Kunimoto received her B.A. in Library and Information Science and M.L.I.S. from Keio University in 2004 and 2006, respectively. From 2009 to 2012, she was an assistant professor at Keio University. She is currently an assistant professor at Academic Link Center, Chiba University. Her research interests include information-seeking behavior and knowledge in action. She earned Honorable Mention in posters of Medical Library Association Annual Meeting and Exhibition in 2009.

Dr. Kazushi Okamoto
Dr. Kazushi Okamoto Chiba University

Dr. Kazushi Okamoto received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in information engineering from Kochi University of Technology in 2006 and 2008, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2011. Since 2011, he has been with the Academic Link Center, Chiba University, as an assistant professor. His research interests include information retrieval, image processing, machine learning, and computer networks.