JAPANESE STUDIES STUDENTS EXCEL IN INTERNSHIP AT THE INFORMATION AND LIBRARY CENTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY: CONNECTING KNOWLEDGE AND DIGITIZING SPECIALIZED DOCUMENT REPOSITORIES
On the afternoon of June 12, 2026, representatives from the Japanese Studies Department, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City, held a meeting with the Board of Directors and specialized staff at the Information and Library Center (Library of USSH, VNUHCM) at the Saigon Campus to review the students' internship progress.
The summary session marked a significant milestone in the internal cooperation and practical training process, aimed at evaluating the quality of the internship and expressing deep gratitude to the unit that received and mentored the Japanese Studies students over the past period.
The Information and Library Center of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City has a development history of nearly 60 years, formerly known as the Library of the University of Letters (established in 1957). Today, the Library serves as the university's core information, cultural, and scientific center, effectively supporting the training and scientific research of 23 faculties and 5 affiliated departments. Notably, the specialized Japanese studies collection at the library is consistently regarded as one of the rich information resources, attracting great interest from researchers, lecturers, and students both domestically and internationally.
During the working session, representatives from the Board of Directors and library staff offered praise and highly valued the attitude, sense of discipline, adaptability, and foreign language proficiency of the Japanese Studies students.
Throughout the internship, under the dedicated guidance of the information experts at the Library, the students were directly immersed in the most modern and essential library professional processes, specifically including:
Digitization and Academic Cataloging: Students engaged in retrieving and looking up international standard ISBN codes on the VNU centralized library system to perform data retrospection. They became proficient in extracting, standardizing, and inputting fixed information fields (title, author, publisher, publication year, editorial responsibility...) of foreign language documents, especially in accurately processing complex Kanji characters in ancient books and donated specialized works.
Content Processing and Bilingual (Vietnamese - Japanese) Material Translation: Leveraging their language skills and specialized knowledge background, students directly participated in preliminary reading, keyword extraction, and building bilingual Vietnamese-Japanese summaries/reviews for the Department's research document system. This activity not only enriched the Library's electronic data system and helped readers quickly grasp the core values of works but also affirmed the sharp academic translation thinking of Japanese Studies students regarding in-depth topics.
Technical Document Processing: Students directly participated in the project of digitizing and re-organizing the entire collection of the Japanese Studies and International Relations departments by cutting, pasting, and synchronizing the new Barcode system, and thoroughly resolving label conflict errors from historical cataloging.
Stack Management and Aesthetic Thinking: Students conducted inventory checks, comparing actual books on shelves with the system list to prevent loss. Additionally, they organized, displayed, and applied uniform labels to bookshelves according to open access professional standards, optimizing storage space while ensuring a visual system that is convenient for readers to browse.
Representing the Japanese Studies Department, Dr. Nguyen Thi Phuong Hao extended her sincerest and deepest gratitude to the Board of Directors and the staff of the Information and Library Center for always accompanying, creating favorable conditions, and providing dedicated guidance, helping students have the opportunity to access a real working environment, practice systematic thinking, and maintain maximum caution with large blocks of knowledge data.
The internship not only helped Japanese Studies students cultivate practical professional skills and flexible problem-solving thinking but also fostered pride and a sense of responsibility toward preserving and spreading the cultural and academic values of their field to the community. The summary meeting took place in a warm and open atmosphere, further affirming the sustainable bond between training units and academic support units across the university.
For more information about the Information and Library Center of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City, please refer to:
Address: Room A.011, 10 – 12 Dinh Tien Hoang, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
Website: http://lib.hcmussh.edu.vn
Email: thuvien@hcmussh.edu.vn
