Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Expatriate Japanese Families As Unexpected Users Of Public Libraries: A Case Study In A College Town Community In The United States, Ryuta Komaki, Fukuji Imai, Yukinori Okabe

University Libraries Presentations

This study explores the use of local public libraries by expatriate Japanese families staying in a micro-urban, university-centered community in the United States, with a specific focus on their reading and information gathering practices. The data used for the study was collected through semi-structured interviews the authors conducted in 2013. The expatriate families in this study consist of those who temporarily live in the area with clear prospects of returning to Japan. All of the families the authors interviewed included a member who was either a corporate transferee (i.e. an employee of a transnational corporation assigned to work in a …