Japan 

Directory Information

     Formal Name:    National Diet Library (Japanese: Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan)
     Address:            1-10-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100, Japan
     Phone:     +81-3-3581-2331     Fax: +81-3-3597-9104
     E-mail:     kokusai@ndlmail.ndl.go.jp
 
History

 "The National Diet Library, modeled on the U.S. Library of Congress, was established in February 1948 and opened to the public on June 5 of the same year.  The preamble of the National Diet Library Law, under which the library was established, expressly declares the ideal of its establishment as follows: "The National Diet Library is hereby established as a result of the firm conviction that truth makes us free and with the object of contributing to international peace and the democratization of Japan as promised in our Constitution.""
 "The National Diet Library has two origins: 1) The libraries of the House of Peers and the House of Representatives, both belonging to the former Imperial Diet under the old Constitution.  These Libraries were established in 1890.  2) The Imperial Library, which was established in 1872 under the Ministry of Education, an executive government agency.  As the Imperial Library was a pre-war deposit library established by law, it had a comprehensive collection of materials published in modern Japan from the Meiji era.  Most of the collection was transferred to the present National Diet Library and formed the basis for the current collection.  After forty years, the National Diet Library is making efforts to preserve the cultural inheritance as Japan's representative library.  it also makes strenuous efforts to meet diversified domestic and overseas demands, providing an information center in a rapidly-progressing information-oriented society."

Organization

 "The National Diet Library belongs to the legislature, in which resides the highest state power of Japan.  It is the only national library and provides services for the Diet, for the government and for the people of Japan.  All Publications in Japan are deposited with the Library, which produces the databases of domestic publications. These data are widely available to the public.  In other words, the National Diet Library is a large comprehensive library for the people with a combined function of providing research services for the Diet."

 "The National Diet Library is under the control of the presiding officers of the House of Representatives and House of Councillors; to be more specific, it comes under the supervision of the Standing Committees on Rules and Administration of the two Houses.  the presiding officers of the two Houses appoint the Librarian with the approval of their Houses.  The Standing Committees on Rules and Administration of the two Houses examine and approve the rules and regulations for the administration of the Library, the business of the Library and its budget.  The Librarian is given a high status equal to that of a minister of state.  Under him, there is one Deputy Librarian.  Currently the number of staff is 850  including the Librarian and Deputy Librarian."

 "The National Diet Library comprises the Main Library, the Detached Library in the Diet, the Ueno Branch Library, the Tôyô Bunko (Oriental Library) and thirty-five branch libraries in the executive and judicial agencies of the government."

Buildings and Facilities

 "Originally the different sections of the Library were housed in the former Akasaka Detached Palace (now State Guesthouse) and several other government buildings.  The present Main Building was completed in 1968.  Later, however, as the main Building became unable to accommodate the increasing amount of materials and work, the construction of the Annex was started in 1981 and completed in 1986."

 Main Building--"The total floor area of the Main Building [six floors] including the stacks, offices, reading rooms and other facilities is 73, 674 square meters....  Pneumatic tubes and vertical conveyers are used for speedy delivery of books.  The reading and research rooms for Diet members are all located at the south end of the sixth floor facing the Diet."

 Annex--"The Annex is located adjacent to the Main Building on the north and is connected organically....It has four floors above ground and eight floors underground, with a total floor area of 71, 594 square meters, almost as large as the Main Building.  The stacks are entirely underground, from the first basement to the eighth basement.  A special feature is the atrium in the center of the stacks for lighting down to the bottom of the building.  The stacks have a capacity of 7,500,000 volumes with 240 km of book shelves.  Of the part above ground, the western half of the building is allocated to library work and the eastern half is for reading rooms so that the movement of the Library staff and that of visitors are clearly separated.  A large hall four floors high separates the areas, making them easily distinguishable to visitors.  The exhibition hall and the auditorium are on the southeast side of the building.  Horizontal and vertical conveyers are installed to carry books and materials within the stacks.  The combined floor area of the Main Building and the Annex is 145,000 square meters, and the stacks account for 53% with a capacity of 12 million volumes."

Collections

 "The National Diet Library is the sole deposit library in the country with a large collection of publications produced in Japan (including maps, phonographic records, microfilms, etc.).  The NDL receives several copies each of publications of the government and local public entities, and one copy each of private publications under the deposit system specified in the National Diet Library Law."

 "The National Diet Library acts as an archives which permanently preserves materials acquired as the cultural inheritance of the Japanese people.

 Major collections include:

  Modern Political and Constitutional History

"The documents that trace the developmental history of Japanese modern politics in and after the latter half of the 19th century."

Laws and Parliamentary Records

"The greatest collection of Japanese and foreign laws and parliamentary materials in Japan, comprising about 280,000 books."

Collection of Maps

"Approximately 350,000 domestic and foreign maps.  an almost complete collection of official maps of Japan since the Meiji era, such as topographic maps, geological maps and hydrographic charts.  In addition, thematic maps such as vegetation maps and land classification maps, city maps, topographic maps of foreign countries, etc."

Materials related to Science and Technology

"To play the role of the central organ providing information on science and technology, the National Diet Library has acquired and made available about 23,000 titles of foreign periodicals concerning science and technology, PB and AD reports, nuclear power and energy-related reports, foreign doctoral dissertations, and papers and standards of academic societies and associations."

Rare Books and Old Materials

"The NDL possesses many rare Japanese books and old materials of the Edo period and earlier.
Major collections are:
 "The Tokugawa Shogunate Government Succession Documents"--Records of Town Magistrates' Offices, the Supreme Court of the Shogunate and the Commissioners of Shrines and Temples, and the documents relating to the succession of the Tokugawa Shogunate Government, totaling 6,000 items.
 "The Itô Bunko, The Shirai Bunko"--Both relating to "honzô" or herbals, totaling 8,000 books including hand-written and block printed books ranging from the Edo period to the Meiji era.
 "The Shinjô Bunko"--A collection of 11,000 items on astronomy and calendars.
 The collection of cold Chinese books mainly comprises the Shina Bunko and the fomer [sic] Tôa Kenkyûjo collection.  The Chinese book collection is renowned for its wealth of local histories and genealogical records."

Musical Materials

 "Copies of phonographic records issued in Japan are also deposited in the NDL, and the number of records possessed by the Library--350,000--is the largest in the country.

Foreign Books concerning Japan

 "Books concerning Japan written by foreigners have been given high priority in the NDL's acquisition policy.  Books in this category now number about 20,000 and include reports by early Christian missionaries published in the 16th century."

Catalogs, Bibliographies and Indexes

 "The public catalogs of books in the Library are roughly divided into catalogs for books in Japanese and those for books in western languages.  They are further classified into those published in the time of the former Imperial Library and those published since the establishment of the Nation Diet Library."

 "Besides basic library catalogs, Many subject bibliographies and indexes are compiled and published."
 ""Japanese national bibliography": as the National Diet Library is the only deposit library established by law in Japan, it is duty-bound to regularly prepare catalogs of publications issued in Japan.  The Library has continuously compiled and published the "Japanese national bibliography" annually, and its weekly edition, "Current publications", since 1948."  It has been computerized and the title changed to "Japanese national bibliography--weekly list".
 ""Japanese periodicals index": an index to the articles appearing in 3,300 academic periodicals in Japan."
 ""General index to the debates": an index to the remarks and discussions in the plenary sessions of the houses and committees of the Diet."
 ""Index to the Japanese laws and regulations": an index to the current laws and regulation in Japan by subjects, years and titles."

Legislative Research

 "To render research and library service to the Diet members for their deliberation in the Diet, the Library has a "Research and Legislative Reference Bureau" with an expert staff of over 150 persons....Apart from the activities engaged in at the request of the Diet, the Library also conducts research work and studies on its own initiative, taking up problems which are likely to become subjects of deliberation in the Diet.  The results of research are distributed to the Diet members upon publication."

Reference and Reader Services

 "Reference inquiries for the location and bibliographies of books and materials and requests for advice on reference materials are answered either by telephone or by letter.  These inquiries or requests from libraries are answered through the Domestic Cooperation Division, Library Cooperation Department.  Reference books such as encyclopaedias, yearbooks, catalogs, etc. are made available to the public in the Reference Book Room."

 Anybody 20 years of age or over can use the Library.  "Those wishing to use the General Study Room are requested to obtain prior approval."

 "The readers' entrances are on the east side of the Main Building and the Annex."

 "A user card is necessary for entering the Library and reading books and materials.  The card is issued at the readers' gate.  Books are stored in the stacks of the Main Building and periodicals in the stacks of the Annex."

Automation

 "The objective of mechanizing the Library's operations is to implement an overall mechanization of all the Library's work, with the ultimate aim of playing the role of an "Information Center" of Japan, forming a computer network with domestic and overseas libraries and information centers....An online information retrieval system was developed based on the accumulated data and online service within the Library was started in 1980.  In April 1981, general distribution of Japan/MARC was started."

 "The Library itself has 226 computer terminals installed for input and retrieval of bibliographic information.  In addition, online service by public circuits is provided for branch libraries of the Diet, executive agencies of the government, the Supreme Court and some pubic libraries."

Statistics (March 1994)

 Staff       850
 Books      6,040,997 vols.
 Maps       361,706
 Periodicals      140,290 titles

 Service to the Diet
      Answers to reference inquiries  19,799
      Books circulated    9,789 vols.

 Service to government agencies
      Answers to reference inquiries  1, 249
      Loan of books (Interlibrary)   4,227

 Service to the public (one year)
      Answers to reference inquiries  274,138
      Loan of books (Interlibrary)   14,969
      Books circulated    1,629,850 vols.
      Books circulated (daily average)  5,267
      Readers      464,457
      Readers (daily average)   2,019

 Finance (budget for fiscal 1993)
 (unit: million yen)
      Salary and other personnel expenses 10,032 (64.7%)
      Purchase of books and other materials 1,105 (7.2%)
      Automation of service   685 (4.4%)
      Others      3,675 (23.7%)
      Total      15,497 (100%)
 

All information except statistics taken from National Diet Library.   Published by the National Diet Library, Library Cooperation Department.  Tokyo, Japan (December 1992).