Date : 22/05/2006

Dynamic Transformation of the National Diet Library – From

the Researcher’s Library to the Library for All –

Kenji UETSUKI
Director
Digital Information Planning Office
Planning Division, Administrative Department
National Diet Library
Japan

Meeting: 117 National Libraries

Simultaneous Interpretation: Yes

WORLD LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CONGRESS: 72ND IFLA GENERAL CONFERENCE AND COUNCIL

20-24 August 2006, Seoul, Korea

http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/index.htm

Abstract
Today it is undeniable that digital library services have become a reliable means of providing
information. National libraries, among others, must make the maximum use of this new means,
because the traditional means of providing services are limited by the physical restrictions which arise
from national libraries’ mission of preserving their nation’s cultural heritage. The new ways of
providing services have shown us how it is possible for us to navigate our patrons to whatever
information resources they need by breaking the constraints that have long existed. On the other side,
digital information resources have won the title for the most promising medium carrying information
on politics, economics and culture. National libraries, which have been a nation’s base to preserve
physical artifacts such as paper-form materials, now must take digital information resources into
consideration. We must surmount high hurdles in order to develop legal systems that support the

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preservation of digital information. The National Diet Library (NDL) has been working hard to tackle
this task, aiming to preserve information resources on the Internet. To pursue these aims, we have been
working on the following three objectives:
1) To construct a major digital archive of the nation as an expansion of the library’s remote service
2) To enhance a navigation system which guides users seamlessly to various collections and
information resources wherever they are regardless of kinds of media; to develop a one-stop portal
which guides users to collections and resources
3) To preserve information resources on the Internet

1. Introduction
<Restrictions on access to the original materials>
The NDL, as the only legal deposit library of Japan, has a mission to collect the nation’s heritage
and pass it on to future generations. For this mission to be fulfilled, the NDL has to put
restrictions on the use of materials. It usually happens that only one copy of a publication is
deposited with the NDL, and the collection is gathered and stored in one place. Also within the
limited human and physical resources, service hours are limited to a certain period of time, and
therefore the library usually closes at night and on holidays. With these restrictions, users are
naturally limited to certain groups, such as librarians and researchers. There was also a restriction
by users’ age. From the point of preservation, we had long regarded the NDL as the last resort.

This is our library’s past, and the situation has not changed much in terms of restricted access to
the original paper-form materials. In this regard I believe that the same may apply to other
national libraries. However, there has been a radical change going on at the NDL since the
opening of the Kansai-kan in October 2002, when we started full-scale digital library services.

2. First Transformation
<Availability of remote access>
By providing full-scale bibliographic information on the Internet, it has become possible for
remote users to check to see if a certain item is held by the NDL and if the item is available for
loan or photocopy. It has also become possible to request loan or photocopying of the materials
via the Internet. Full-scale digital library services began when the NDL started to provide digital
contents on the Internet, which can be browsed directly by remote users without having to visit
the library.

Since 2002 when the NDL started providing the NDL-OPAC (National Diet Library Online

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Public Access Catalog)1, the NDL and its collections have become more visible and transparent
to remote users. That is, it has become easy for remote users to obtain information that had been
long unavailable to them without visiting the library in person, such as information included in
the catalogs located only in the library and about the availability of each material. The
NDL-OPAC covers most of the library’s collections, including monographs, periodicals,
newspapers, doctoral dissertations, and other forms of materials, and it contains 14.4 million
records. Half of the records contained, some 7 million records, are from the Japanese Periodicals
Index, which indexes some 10,000 titles of Japanese periodicals, including both academic
journals and popular magazines. All the records of the NDL-OPAC are available free of charge.

Registered users can make requests online for photocopies or interlibrary loans of the library’s
materials. In 2004 73% of the requests for photocopies were made online, and the registered users
amounted to 64,000. User registration is free of charge. By introducing the user registration
system, the number of photocopy requests more than tripled from 2000 to 2005. The main driving
force for this increase is the rising number of individual users who use this remote service. This is
the first step in the transformation of our library’s service in which the main pillar has shifted
from on-site service to remote service.

Another step in the transformation is the beginning of the so-called “digital library service”
through which users can directly browse library materials from remote places. In the first project,
the “Digital Library from the Meiji Era,2” we digitized monographs published in Japan during
the 45 years of the Meiji era (1868-1912) and held by the NDL, and have provided them in the
form of digital images on the Internet since 2002.

Of the whole collection of the Meiji-era monographs held by the NDL, about 75% of the
copyright were cleared, amounting to approximately 130,000 volumes. The project was
completed in spring this year. A little less than 30% of the digitized works were confirmed as
copyright-free. However, the remaining 70% of the works were found to be still copyrighted, but
the copyright owners could not be located even though we made considerable effort. For these
works of whose copyright owners we could not find, we obtained a compulsory license from the
Commissioner for Cultural Affairs. This is a system based on the Copyright Law: a compulsory
license is given without copyright owners’ permission by depositing estimated copyright fee with
the government so that we can provide the copyrighted works to the public. In April this year, the
volumes digitized were doubled, and access to them was tripled.

1
http://opac.ndl.go.jp/index_e.html
2
http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/

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To use rare and old materials, users need to submit an application in advance, and their
accessibility is not high. Now, however, we have digitized them and made them open to the public
in the Rare Books Image Database3. Now approximately 37,000 images of 861 titles are available.

In addition, we have made available digital exhibitions4 on nine subjects so far. One of the
exhibitions, the Birth of the Constitution of Japan, has been highly evaluated and even used as a
school educational tool. The number of accesses to it amounts to 250,000 per month.

As a parliamentary library, it is our unique service to electronically provide full-text of minutes of

the Diet5. What gives prominence to this database is that it includes not only the minutes of
Plenary Sittings but also those of the Committees.

We have also digitized our publications that used to be published in paper form and made them
available online. For example, the NDL Annual Report, public relations magazines such as the
NDL Monthly Bulletin and the NDL Newsletter, and reports made for reference of the Diet
deliberations, are available on the NDL website.

<Shift to borderless service>

Remote service using the library’s collections and information on them mentioned above has
become nationwide and has obviously narrowed the gaps between the regions. Internet service
itself does not have national borders, though language diversity exists. Resources on the NDL
website are used as a tool to study Japan by academic institutions world-wide. If users have the
right equipment, they can access it wherever they are, living in a foreign country or traveling
abroad on business. There is no border between countries to restrict access. With the remote
service, users can also make use of our collections without time constraints. Accessibility has
been clearly improved. The access counter of our website records over 15,000 per day, which is
ten times as many as the number of on-site users. Of course, we do not need to set an age limit to
use the website.

The behavior of users who visit the library in person has also been changed by the influence of
remote service. For example, the number of requests for materials that cannot be provided on-site
is reduced, while the number of materials one person uses in a day increases. That means the
remote service is not only useful for remote users but also has a good effect on allowing visiting

3
http://rarebook.ndl.go.jp/pre/servlet/pre_com_menu.jsp
4
http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/gallery/index.html and
http://www.kodomo.go.jp/gallery/digi/index_e.html
5
http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp/

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users to use the library effectively.

It can be summarized that the remote service has had a dramatic effect in improving accessibility
of our services. This is the first stage of the digital library service without walls that we have been
working hard for the last decade to establish. We believe that we have successfully reached it.

3. Further possibilities

Here I will talk about our plan for the next three years.

Two years and a half ago, we drew up a basic policy, which highly evaluates the functions of the
digital library service. The policy, called the NDL Vision 20046, describes our mission, role, and
the priority areas. Creation of digital archives and improvement of access to information
resources are clearly advocated in the priority areas. Under the Vision, the National Diet Library
Digital Library Medium Term Plan for 20047 sets forth the direction in which the digital library
service will be oriented over the next five years, and presents the framework required for realizing
such service. The direction of the construction of digital archives we have been undertaking
follows the Plan. As the means of circulation of information change, the role of library itself also
changes. To respond to the demands of the time for a change of national library, we set three
main goals as follows:

1) To construct a major digital archive of the nation as an expansion of the library’s remote
service
2) To enhance a navigation system which guides users seamlessly to various collections and
information resources regardless of whether we hold them or not and regardless of kinds of
media; to develop a one-stop portal which guides users to collections and resources in an
integrated manner
3) To preserve information resources on the Internet

This is a declaration that the NDL, which formerly served as the last resort for researchers, should
serve as a national library for all people in Japan and should function as a part of the world library.
We are trying to break out of our old shell to transform ourselves dynamically.

6
http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/aboutus/vision_2004.html
7
http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/aboutus/elib_plan2004.html

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3.1 Creation of digital library
<Digitization>
We will continue to intensively digitize our holdings published in Japan and make them open to
the public. The digitized collections are a major part of the NDL Digital Archive together with
the archived Internet information resources I will explain in more detail later. We finished the
digitization of books published in the Meiji era and are preparing to digitize the next part, 90,000
books published in the Taisho era (1912-1926). The digitization of rare and old materials that do
not require copyright clearance will also be expanded.

In addition to the provision of information on paper-form materials such as periodicals index and
bibliographic data, and the function of receiving requests for copying service via the Internet, we
will steadily provide our collections electronically, the easier parts first.

In addition, we have developed the Collaborative Reference Database Project8 to help users have
access to expert knowledge on information. This database has been available on the Internet since
2005, providing accumulated data such as reference examples, manuals to find resources on
specific subjects, special collections held in each library, and profiles of member libraries, with the
collaboration of 390 libraries including public, university and special libraries. This information is
to support reference services in libraries and the research and study of general users. As of April
2006, a total of 21,172 records are registered, of which 10,131 are open to the public.

3.2 Construction of a digital archive portal

Accumulation of digital contents is important for the library of course, but it is not sufficient
enough. The value of a national library will be judged by its potential to provide integrated
information to the individual user wherever they exist. We have guided users to our databases
with GUI (Graphical User Interface) so far, specific to each database. Our navigation service has
been prone to be limited mainly to resources of related institutions such as libraries and academic
organizations. But now we are planning to integrate and provide various database of the library
first, and then expand it to integrate information of many digital archives outside, in the way we
can achieve it automatically. For its realization, we are preparing to construct a portal site. In this
site users who have searched a specific material will be guided to digital materials in one-stop
access or, for instance, to the photocopy service for paper-form materials. Users now expect
seamless access both to paper-form and digital-form materials, and what they need is not limited
to information inside libraries. The coverage of search should be expanded beyond the library
walls to archives, commercial databases, book stores, secondhand booksellers, museums and so

8
http://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/library/collabo-ref.html

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on. In this way we are aiming at constructing a mechanism which serves as a bridge between users
and the information needed, at one stop as far as possible. We call this service, mentioned as the
second main goal, a digital archive portal. We are now in the stage of constructing and providing
a prototype system9 before starting full-scale construction. This pilot system has been developed
since fiscal 2004 in order to examine required specifications for the full-scale operation. For
example, by entering a search word you can find a list of results from multiple databases such as
the Digital Library from the Meiji Era, NDL-OPAC, National Archives of Japan and Japanese
Periodicals Index and then jump to those primary and secondary sources.

<Standardization of interface>
What is the mechanism to realize these functions? In general, most of the websites and
informational services used to have their specific service interfaces through browsers. There are
not so many of them which have an application program interface enabling a cross search for
other service providers for their integrated information services. If each institution provides
application program interface under the same specifications, and if it automatically provides
metadata of each content in a form processible by computers, various service providers and
portals can make use of it to develop value-added services in response to the variety of needs and
interests of users.

We are aiming to realize a digital archive portal by promoting and generalizing the system like
this, because it is obvious that there is a limitation in the way of preparing linkage software
according to each specification. Promoting common interface to the data providers, we expect
that it will be possible for us to have a wider linkage with other institutions such as libraries,
academic organizations, archives, book stores, secondhand booksellers, and museums, and also
we expect that users will be happy to have one-stop access to the contents.

Every institution navigating information broadly will need a mechanism like this sooner or later.
The important point is to collect metadata automatically from each database. Regardless of
whether the targeted content is in the surface or in the deep web, if only the existence and the
location of that content are indicated mechanically, that can be used for to achieve a one-stop
portal. This mechanism has been already realized for secondary sources, through the Z39.50
protocol in library environments. In addition to this, the OAI-PMH(Open Archive Initiative –
Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) protocol is used these days for institutional repositories of
academic organizations including universities, and Web services such as SRW(Search/Retrieve
Web Service) seem to be developing widely in the future. On the practical side, more and more

9
http://www.dap.ndl.go.jp/home/

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sites are putting information on the web in a simple way using RSS(RDF Site Summary or Really
Simple Syndication). The important key for the future is the standardization and dissemination
of the mechanism mentioned above that will realize an integrated search of NDL’s materials and
a navigation system for users to the broader information they need.

<Bridge to the preservation of digital information>

In addition, I have to point out that the digital archive portal has a great deal to do with the future
preservation of information resources on the Internet. In principle, content accessible
automatically in a portal should be able to be collected by web robots even if it is in the deep web.
Therefore, promotion of the one-stop portal useful for daily information seeking will also
contribute directly to a system for preservation. In this point, we think this project is also an
important steppingstone toward the archiving of resources on the Internet in the future. It may be
better that the information we are now using will be conserved for the next generation. As for
network preservation, I will talk about it in the next section.

Until now, the NDL has regarded itself as the last resort. This will not change, but we are also
aiming to be from the beginning a library for all, which will be used everywhere.

3.3 The preservation of information resources on the Internet

Lastly, I should mention the common issue national libraries in the world already share. It is the
preservation of digital information that is in danger of disappearing, such as information
resources on the Internet. No one denies any more that digital information has been realized as
the most promising medium carrying information on politics, economics and culture. National
libraries, which have been a nation’s base to preserve physical artifacts such as paper-form
materials, now must take digital information resources into consideration. Although we must
surmount high hurdles in order to develop legal systems that support the preservation of digital
information, it is our important mission as a national library to preserve information created
electronically and guarantee its accessibility.

The NDL has been working on a project in order to preserve websites since 2000. It is called
WARP (Web Archiving Project)10, collecting and providing information by the permission of
each website. It contains electronic journals and websites of government agencies, some local
agencies prior to their mergers, public corporations, institutions, universities and some events
which have probably been deleted after their closing, such as exhibitions. The oldest collection is
that of 2000.

10
http://warp.ndl.go.jp/

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We found, through a simple investigation conducted on last July, that, among the periodicals
deposited with the NDL, over 250 titles of periodicals have been converted into digital form from
paper form. While this is an example of what used to be published in the paper media and is now
distributed in digital media, the forms of distribution have assuredly and significantly been
changed in the information-communication society. It has become an undeniable fact that
information on the Internet and the manner of its utilization is, apart from its advantages and
disadvantages, becoming a large foundation for businesses and culture. However, digital
information has characteristics that can be easily updated, deleted and moved. These
characteristics pose major challenge for preserving digital information. We think the NDL should
reflect these characteristics and take a role as a mirror to secure the survival of this generation's
knowledge into the future.

As is well known, UNESCO adopted the “Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage”11
in 2003 and stressed its importance to governments. In response, the NDL has set the following as
main targets for future projects: preserving and accumulating of information resources on the
Internet, web archiving and providing it.

<Comprehensive acquisition>
In the WARP project, having dealt with many websites, some problems have been pointed out:
complicated relations of rights that arise from an enormous amount of copyright clearance; what
digital information should be preserved for future generations; and how to collect digital
information which cannot be collected automatically. Accordingly, our library has been
continuing preparations for the full-scale acquisition of information on the Internet trying to
prepare for a legal system. We have three ways. The first is bulk harvesting, which collects the
surface web contents comprehensively by using crawler, following links to links by restricting
their copyrights. Although collecting all the information on the Internet in Japan might be worth
doing, it is said that the Internet carries much illegal information as well. Therefore we assume
that we will practically limit the scope of the application of the bulk harvesting to the websites of
highly public organizations. In addition, to avoid repressing publishers’ motivation to freely
express and publish their ideas as a result of the NDL’s acquisition non-consensual with
publishers, we will adopt the policy of accepting publishers’ claim not to collect their publications.
Publishers can also make a claim to delete what we have collected of their publications and not to
make them public on the Internet. At the same time we will stop providing some kinds of
information in cases where we find a fact or have claims from the victims of child pornography,
11

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13366&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SEC
TION=201.html

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obscenities, or other encroachments of human rights.

<Selective acquisition>
The second way is to collect websites selectively. By the above-mentioned way, we are unable to
collect useful information existing in the purely private domain. Therefore, we are going to collect
selectively in regard to the websites of corporations, private organizations and individuals. It also
enables us to consider the frequency of acquisition separately.

The third way is to collect individual works that deserve to be held on the electric bookshelves
from information resources hidden in the deep web and undetectable automatically by crawler. It
includes methods to attach the metadata, which makes the individual works searchable, and
enables us to render them with the future equipments. With this methodology we hope that we
can play a role in the international cooperation to preserve digital information, with a view to
preserving digital journals as has been done by the National Library of the Netherlands12. The
National Library of the Netherlands and the NDL made an arrangement for comprehensive
cooperation in August 2005, and we have made efforts to cope with the common problems
through international cooperation.

We are still engaged on the development of legal systems at present and that is why we should
mainly collect digital information selectively, though we have kept up our efforts for the
development of technology, consensus building and acquisition aimed at preserving the
comprehensive digital information resources of Japan. There are many problems and tasks in
constructing preservation systems and developing technologies for rendering digital information,
which means especially that mutual cooperation among national libraries is essential.

4. Conclusion
In order to change and improve so as to be the library for all, as the communicator of information
seamlessly throughout the eras, while fulfilling our mission, we have to work on the following:
1) To preserve and accumulate resources of digital information in response to the changing
information environment
2) To ensure that people can share and enjoy the fruits of new information and communication
technology by utilizing it

For the former, I overleap explanations because it had been already mentioned in many papers
before. For the latter, standardization of the interface and promotion of its dissemination is

12
http://www.kb.nl/bst/beleid/bp/2002/opslag-en.html

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necessary. This requires a cooperative relationship with relevant institutions. Services need to be
developed, taking into account the various kinds of libraries and regional libraries, for the
expansion and equality of the opportunities to share new services.

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