About the Bankers Library
A Brief History
The Bankers Library was founded on January 20, 1897, under the name of Keizai Bunko. After the World War II, the Library was closed as the building in which the Library was set up was taken over the Allied Forces. It was July 1960 that the Library was reopened after 15 years closing. In September 1966, the Library moved to the present location as a new building was completed and it was that time that its Japanese name was changed to the present one, Ginko Toshokan.
Organization
The Bankers Library is operated by Research Department of the Tokyo Bankers Association, Inc. (TBA).
The name, the Bankers Library, is not only a division name of Research Department but also represents the name of a library facilities itself. The Library is also known as the library of the Japanese Bankers Association (formerly Federation of Bankers Associations of Japan), since TBA's secretariat plays the full role of JBA's secretariat.
Storage Area and Reading Room
The Bankers Library has an area of about 600 square-meters including a reading room, an open stack and two storage areas.
In the reading room sixteen seats are available. In addition, there are three small rooms for persons who continuously use the Library for several weeks or more to complete their research work.
Library's Holdings
The Bankers Library mainly collects the materials on money, banking and finance. Among them, a typical collection is the books on histories of individual banking institutions and bankers associations as well as of periodicals published by financial institutions around the world.
The Library also makes an effort to collect so called gray literature. Gray literature can roughly be defined as the materials which is not circulated at commercial basis.
As of the end of March 2006, the Library houses more than 153,000 books and book-bound periodicals and is subscribing more than 650 titles of periodicals.
As the Library has a long history, it stores 20,000 books published before the World War II including books published during 18th and 19th centuries. Those valuable books are treated as a special collection called Keizai Bunko which was named after the Library's former name.
Users
Originally, the Bankers Library was established to offer services exclusively to members of the Bankers Club which is the club for executives of TBA member banks. Nowadays, the Library is open to the public that means the Library contributing to the society. Borrowers, however, are limited. [Refer to Borrowing Conditions]
