You find the Japanese book you want, but the catalog shows several records, unfamiliar numbers, and a button marked 予約. Is the book on the shelf, already borrowed, or available only inside the library?
Reading a Japanese library catalog means answering three separate questions: which publication is this, where is a particular copy, and what can you do with it? Once you separate those questions, the screen becomes much easier to use. This guide walks through the labels and ends with a practice record you can decode without translating every line.
Start with a title or author you already know
Look for 蔵書検索（ぞうしょけんさく）, meaning a search of the library's holdings. A catalog may also call itself OPAC. Begin with one short search rather than filling every box.
Useful search labels include:
- キーワード: keyword, often searching several fields together.
- 書名（しょめい）or タイトル: book title.
- 著者（ちょしゃ）or 著者名: author or author name.
- 出版者（しゅっぱんしゃ）: publisher.
- 詳細検索（しょうさいけんさく）: advanced or detailed search.
The National Diet Library's search guide explains that its keyword search covers titles, authors, publishers, subjects, and tables of contents. Its separate 著者・編者 field includes authors, editors, and translators. That distinction is useful when a broad keyword search returns too much.
Try this sequence: search a distinctive part of the title, inspect the results, then add the author's surname if necessary. If a full title returns nothing, remove a subtitle or punctuation. Use the catalog's own help for matching rules; spaces and quotation marks do not behave identically in every system.
Keep the original Japanese spelling beside your notes. A romanized title can help you remember a book, but copying the actual title gives you a more reliable starting point for another Japanese catalog.
Check the publication before checking availability
Two records with similar titles may describe different volumes, translations, or editions. Before choosing a copy, read the publication details.
- 著: written by; 編: edited or compiled by; 訳: translated by.
- 出版年（しゅっぱんねん）or 出版年月: publication year or year and month.
- 版（はん）: edition; 改訂版（かいていばん）: revised edition.
- 巻（かん）or 巻次（かんじ）: volume or volume designation.
- 上・中・下: first, middle, and last parts of a divided work.
- ISBN: a publication identifier you can compare with the book you need.
For a textbook, match the edition and volume deliberately. A familiar cover or title alone may leave you with the wrong exercises. For a translated novel, check the translator if you want a particular translation.
書誌（しょし）means bibliographic information: the description of the publication. 所蔵（しょぞう）means holdings: the library's copies. Tokyo Metropolitan Library's catalog manual distinguishes the detailed publication information from the holding library, call number, and usage information on its detail screen.
Think of the publication record as an answer to “Which book?” Then move to the copies to answer “Which one can I use?” A result in the catalog establishes a match to your search, not permission to borrow it.
Read the copy's location as a set of fields
A holdings section may contain several rows because different branches own copies. Read across one row at a time. Mixing the branch from one row with the status from another produces a misleading answer.
Start with these labels:
- 所蔵館（しょぞうかん）: the library or branch holding the copy.
- 配架場所（はいかばしょ）or 所蔵場所: where the copy is shelved or stored.
- 請求記号（せいきゅうきごう）: call number, used to identify its shelf position.
- 資料番号 or 資料コード: an identifier for the individual item.
The Hokkaido Prefectural Library catalog guide tells readers to check the shelving location first, then use the call number shown on the spine label. It also explains that staff retrieve materials marked 閉架書庫, a closed-stack storage area.
開架（かいか）means open stacks; 閉架（へいか）means closed stacks. These describe access to the shelves. They do not, by themselves, tell you whether a book can leave the building.
Copy the branch, location, and complete call number together. Preserve letters, slashes, and other symbols rather than keeping only the first digits. If you cannot find the shelf, show that group of fields to staff. You can ask: 「この本はどこにありますか。」—“Where is this book?” The record gives your question a clear reference.
Separate availability from borrowing permission
Status vocabulary varies by library, so read its legend before treating a label as a universal promise.
貸出中（かしだしちゅう）means checked out. 貸出可 means eligible for lending, while 利用可 means available for use under that library's rules. 在架（ざいか）refers to being on the shelf. 回送中（かいそうちゅう）indicates that a copy is being transferred. These labels describe different aspects of a copy, so look at the neighboring fields too.
Yokohama's catalog instructions define 利用可 as on the shelf and 貸出中 as currently lent out. They explain that 回送中 is a copy returning from another library and that 館内のみ restricts use to the holding library.
Other restriction labels you may encounter include 館内利用, use inside the library, and 禁帯出（きんたいしゅつ）, no taking the material outside. A copy can therefore be present and usable without being borrowable.
Institutional rules matter as well. Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library's materials guide states that it does not lend materials outside the library to individuals. Read the particular library's 利用案内, or usage guide, before planning to take a book home.
For each copy, write two short answers: “Where is it now?” and “How may I use it?” If either answer remains unclear, check the help or ask staff rather than guessing from a button color.
Follow a reservation through its separate stages
予約（よやく）means reservation. A reservation button is an action you can request; it does not say that the book is waiting for you.
Look for 受取館（うけとりかん）, the pickup library, and the status of the reservation itself. Yokohama's reservation guide distinguishes these stages:
- 予約申込: the reservation request has been entered.
- 予約中: waiting for the copy to be secured or returned.
- 受取館へ回送中: the copy has been secured elsewhere or is moving toward the pickup library.
- 受取可: the pickup library has secured the copy and it is ready to borrow.
The guide also separates 予約有効期限日, the reservation's validity deadline, from 取置期限日, the deadline for collecting a ready item. Treat them as different fields. Use the dates shown for your own reservation and the library's instructions.
When reading a confirmation screen, identify the title, pickup branch, and request outcome before closing it. Adding something to a reservation basket may be an intermediate step. Check for the final result screen that the local guide describes. For language practice, you can learn these labels from public help screenshots without submitting a reservation.
Work through one invented catalog record
The following is a made-up exercise, not an actual book, library holding, or reservation:
- 書名: やさしい日本の庭
- 著者: 山田はるか 著
- 版: 改訂版
- 巻次: 上
- 所蔵館: みどり分館
- 配架場所: 一般開架
- 請求記号: 629 / ヤ / 1
- 状態: 貸出中
Before looking up unfamiliar words in the title, answer four questions. Is this the original or revised edition? Which part of the work is it? Which branch owns this copy? Can you expect it to be sitting on that shelf now?
The record describes a revised edition, the first part, held at the fictional Midori branch. Its normal location is the general open stacks, but this copy is checked out. 一般開架 describes where it belongs; 貸出中 describes its current situation.
Now imagine the same row changes to 状態: 利用可 and 取扱: 館内のみ. Under the Yokohama definitions above, the reading changes to “on the shelf, for use inside the holding library.” Availability changed, but the restriction still matters.
Finally, imagine a reservation shows 受取館へ回送中. You know the copy is in the preparation or transfer stage described by that system; you still need its ready-to-collect status. This exercise trains you to read relationships between fields rather than attach one English translation to the whole screen.
Turn one public record into a short study session
Choose a book about a subject you already enjoy. Familiar subject matter lets you focus on catalog language instead of deciphering an unfamiliar book topic at the same time.
- Search the title or author in a public Japanese catalog.
- Open one publication record and identify its edition and volume.
- Select one holdings row and copy its branch, location, call number, and status.
- Check the library's explanation for that status and any restriction.
- Close your notes and explain, in one sentence, which copy you found and what your next step would be.
Keep a small set of contrasts: 書誌 versus 所蔵, 開架 versus 閉架, and 貸出中 versus 受取可. Revisit them on a second record. The useful outcome is being able to act on a catalog entry, not memorizing every word in its description.
For a brief practice loop, try Kotoru anonymously with a few lines of public catalog text. Kotoru is a local-first language-learning tool for studying language from real sources; pasted text is enough for this exercise. Keep the field labels beside their values so the vocabulary retains its context, then return to the library's own page for availability and service rules.