National Diet Library

The National Diet Library plays the following roles based on "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" (Preamble of the National Diet Library Law) :

• Collects products of the intellectual activities of Japanese people on a broad scale, from printed materials to digital information, and constructs information resources as the common property of the people of Japan.
• Assists the legislative activities of the Diet by providing research and analysis services, and information on national political issues.
• Provides library services and guarantees access to information resources from now into the future to the executive and judicial branch and to the people of Japan.

With the rapid advance of information networks, the ways in which information is distributed in the society have been dramatically changing. Moreover, in today's society where the social framework is undergoing change and values are diversifying, it is increasingly important for both individuals and organizations to collect and select relevant information on which to base their decisions.

In order to respond to these changes in the information and social environment, the National Diet Library has been working on the enrichment of library services and the enhancement of its information transmission via the Internet. Our next task is to improve the level of our services in the following four areas:

• Enhancement of legislative support function
  To assist the legislative activities of the Diet of Japan, we will further improve our research services. Moreover, we will provide accurate information more effectively using both domestic and overseas information resources.
• Creation of digital archives
  We will construct digital archives to store and provide digital information as common information resources of the people of Japan.
• Improvement of access to information resources
  To guarantee free and equal access to information resources, we will expand opportunities to use the NDL collections and improve the level of our services.
  
• Promotion of cooperation
  We will strengthen ties with domestic and overseas libraries and related institutions to promote sharing and distribution of information resources. In addition, we will cooperate in fostering library professionals and contribute to developing library and information services.
  • Priority Objectives