Tweets net huge book donation
and generous outpouring from Japan

by Margaret von Steinen
February 21, 2013 | WMU News
KALAMAZOO—Twitter messages requesting Japanese books to support Western Michigan University's new major in Japanese garnered thousands of donations, as well as dozens of heartwarming and heartrending letters.

Dr. Jeffrey Angles, WMU associate professor of world languages and literatures and director of the Soga Japan Center, was in Japan in early 2011 when he wrote a series of Twitter messages calling for the donations. Angles had been working with his colleagues at WMU to offer Japanese as an academic major. The major would be offered starting with the 2012 fall semester, but he was concerned there were too few Japanese-language holdings in the University's Waldo Library.

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