The Reischauer Institute welcomes Saeko Suzuki as the new Japanese Studies Librarian at the Harvard-Yenching Library

Saeko Suzuki is an accomplished academic librarian and digital humanities specialist with a Master of Library Science and a Diploma in Archival Studies and Records Management. She has held positions at the University of British Columbia, Yale University Library, and University of Washington Libraries. Her expertise includes data management, collaborative collection development, appraisal of Japanese rare materials, digitization, and user-centered support for research and learning communities.

Her research, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), examines how early modern Japanese publishers helped shape ideas of gender through illustrated encyclopedias for women. Her work combines methods for reading premodern texts, bibliographic analysis of material culture, and new computational tools.

She previously taught Japanese literature and culture at the University of British Columbia, which gave her a strong understanding of today’s information literacy needs and of student engagement in higher education. 

At the Harvard-Yenching Library, Saeko Suzuki will bring her interdisciplinary expertise and commitment to user-centered librarianship to the stewardship of its rich collections and history, supporting innovative research, collection development, and academic partnerships.