The NDL sets up specific objectives to be carried out within 1-3 years in order to improve our services in each of the priority objectives defined in the NDL Vision 2004. We assess the progress in each objective and publish the results of the evaluation in the following fiscal year.

FY2005 is the second year that the NDL introduced this new evaluation system. The result of the evaluation of FY2005 priority objectives is as follows:

• To reinforce the support for dealing with significant national political issues, especially issues relating to the Constitution of Japan
• To enhance "interdisciplinary research" which analyzes a specific subject from multiple perspectives
• To enhance providing digital information to the Diet

• To complete the digitization of most of the books published in the Meiji Era from the NDL holdings by the end of FY2006,and make them available on the "Digital Library from the Meiji Era"
• To set up the standard procedures for acquisition, preservation and provision of Internet information issued within Japan and from 2005 to start collecting the Internet information based on legislation
• To create a comprehensive portal site as a navigation tool for overall digital information of Japan by cooperating and coordinating widely with other institutions that produce and provide digital content in response to the e-Japan priority policy program

• To enrich services in providing electronic information resources available in the Library
• To develop collections of science and technology information appropriate for the digital environment
• To publicize the User Registration System which increases the convenience of the registrants with extra services and to increase the use of copying service via the Internet
• To provide increased number of bibliographic data and location data
• To actively hold exhibitions and digital exhibitions adapted to the suitable themes that make public the library's precious materials to a wider range of users
• To collect and provide the microfilm reproduction of children's books in the Prange Collection (a collection of publications owned by the University of Maryland issued in Japan from 1945 to 1949,the early period of the Occupation by the Allied Powers)
• To expand the services of the International Library of Children's Literature and the activities of its Museum and to reinforce the ILCL's functions as a special library for children's literature

• To develop international interlibrary cooperation mainly by collaborating with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and by interacting with libraries in Asia
• To start online training programs using Web technology from FY2005 for library staff in Japan
• To further advance collecting and accumulating more case data (reference service records) for the Collaborative Reference Database by cooperating libraries inside/outside Japan and to make the case data available on the Internet by the end of FY2005

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.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
In addition to research based on requests from the Diet (i.e., the Houses, Committees and Diet Members), the NDL conducts anticipatory research into the issues that are predicted to be significant in the coming session, and reports the results in the NDL's publications such as "Reference"(Japanese only) and also putting them on the NDL website "Chosa-no-Mado" (access to research services) which is accessible exclusively by the Diet. Particularly at the beginning of each Diet session, the NDL anticipates the important issues that likely arise during the session and makes intensive preparation for them.

In response to the establishment of the Research Commissions on the Constitution in both the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors in 2000,the NDL set up the Constitution Research Office of the Politics and Parliamentary Affairs Division and has actively carried out research on the Constitution.

Some portions of its publications offered on the "Chosa-no-Mado" are also open to the public on the "NDL Home Page."

<Achievements of FY2005>
The NDL provided answers to 41,344 requests by the Diet in FY2005,an increase of over 20% from FY2004. In addition, it produced 364 articles in total on important national political issues. Among them, the number of issues of the "Research and Information - ISSUE BRIEF -"(Japanese only)(leaflets explaining a topic selected from national political issues of major concern) reached a record 52.

As for the research on the Constitution of Japan, four monographs analyzing major issues of the Constitution were published under the series title "Series: Constitutional Issues"(Japanese only) and 866 investigation reports were provided on request.

The NDL conducted a survey on the Diet members' needs in its first attempt with the purpose of improving services for the Diet. The survey results show that the Diet members favorably evaluated our research as highly analytic, neutral, objective and timely. Based on the results, the NDL formulated in February 2006 the "Guidelines for services for the National Diet" which indicate the future direction of our services for the Diet.

The NDL also changed the "basic research work plan" to a calendar year basis (January - December), in accordance with the calendar of the Diet session, from a fiscal year basis (April - March) in January 2006 so as to make the plan better adapted to issues on national policy.

Performance indicators and actual performance on research based on requests and anticipatory research

Performance indicators		FY2004	FY2005
Research based on requests	Diet inquiries answered by the NDL   of which relating to the Constitution	34,014 887	41,344 866
Anticipatory research (Number of the reported articles)	"Reference"	52	58
	"Research and Information - ISSUE BRIEF -"	28	52
	"Foreign Legislation"	186	184
	"Total Points of National Political Issues"	30	40
	"Research Materials Series"   of which "Series: Constitutional Issues"	24 8	20 4
	Other investigative reports	9	10
	Total	329	364

<Future tasks>
The NDL aims to provide the high value-added research services based on strong expertise and to enhance provision of information resources and materials, which is one of the NDL's basic functions, in order to implement the "Guidelines for services for the National Diet"

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The NDL conducts interdisciplinary research which deals with national political issues that require long-term and cross-subject studies by choosing a specific topic each year and setting up a project team consisting of staff members across the divisions. The NDL takes basically two years to complete one interdisciplinary research analyzing from multiple and cross-disciplinary perspectives with field studies and literature search both inside and outside of Japan.

Since FY2001,the results of interdisciplinary research have been published at least once a year. The topic of FY2004 was "Aging Society with Fewer Children" (Japanese only) and the result was published as "Interdisciplinary Research Report: Aging Society with Fewer Children."

<Achievements of FY2005>
The NDL took up "Revitalization of Local Society: From the Perspective of Decentralization and Deregulation" as a theme of the FY 2004-2005 interdisciplinary research and published the research report "Regional Revitalization: Creation of Communities with Their Own Characteristics by Decentralization and Autonomy" (Japanese only) in February 2006. In this survey, from the viewpoint of decentralization and deregulation, the project team analyzed actual conditions of local governments, various factors preventing them from autonomous development and issues confronting the central and local governments.

<Future tasks>
The topic of the FY2005-2006 interdisciplinary research is "Present situation and Future issues of the Enlarged EU." The project team has been working on literature search, field study, etc., aiming at publishing its report in February 2007. For the subject of 2006,"Consolidation of Peace, " and that of 2006-2007 "Problems of the Immigrant Policy and the Foreign Workers Policy in a Depopulation Society, " the NDL has started to establish a study framework.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The NDL launched the website for the Diet, "Chosa-no-Mado" in FY1998. In addition to providing access via the National Diet WAN (wide area network connecting the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors and the NDL), the NDL started in FY2004 to provide access to "Chosa-no-Mado" via the Internet so that the Diet members can use it from outside the Diet building.

To support the legislative activities of Diet members, the NDL has promoted organizing and providing legislative information on the "Chosa-no-Mado." The "Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet" (Japanese only) provides the full texts of session proceedings from the first session in May 1947 to the current session in a searchable form. The "Index to the Japanese Laws and Regulations Database" (Japanese only) includes indexes to the laws and regulations from the enactment of Kobunshiki (February,1886) and indexes to the bills tabled since the first session of the National Diet (1947). Since the bills indexed are linked to the "Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet" all of the proceedings of the Diet (both plenary meetings and committee meetings) under deliberation can be viewed directly. Both databases are offered on the "NDL Home Page" as well as on the "Chosa-no-Mado."

<Achievements of FY2005>
In FY2005 the NDL newly posted a total of 364 articles and reports on the "Chosa-no-Mado." The number of visitors to the contents of the "Chosa-no-Mado" was some 23,000,an increase of 24% from FY2004.

The number of accumulated data of the "Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet" reached 2,850,000 pages. It has 670,000 visitors and is one of the most heavily used databases offered by the NDL. The NDL also added about 5,800 new data to the "Index to the Japanese Laws and Regulations Database, " which about 100,000 users visit.

In FY2005,the NDL opened the "Database System for the Minutes of the Imperial Diet" (Japanese only) to the public and made all the proceedings in the postwar period, from the 88th to the 92nd session (September 1945 to March 1947) available.

In addition to providing these databases, the Detached Library in the Diet made it easier for the Diet members and staff to search the materials it holds by expanding its web pages.

Performance indicators and actual performance on organizing and providing the legislative information

Performance indicators		FY2004	FY2005
"Chosa-no-Mado"	New contents (number of files)	329	364
	Number of visitors	18,425	22,862
"Full-text Database System for the Diet"	Number of new data (page)	48,698	57,390
	Number of visitors to the data (via National Diet WAN) (via the Internet)	149,832 442,506	176,277 496,533
"Index to Japanese Laws and Regulations Database"	Number of new data	5,548	5,773
	Number of visitors to the top page (via the National Diet WAN and the Internet)	-	101,663
"Database System for the Minutes of the Imperial Diet"	Number of new data (page)	-	29,143
	Number of visitors to the data (via the National Diet WAN) (via the Internet)	- -	2,113 11,871

<Future tasks>
Since the survey on the Diet members' needs proved that the "Chosa-no-Mado" is not necessarily known to all of them well enough, the NDL needs to facilitate further utilization of it. Expansion of its functions and contents is being planned for this purpose.

For the "Full-text Database System for the Diet, " the NDL is planning to enhance this system, such as adding text information other than the proceedings. In the "Index to Japanese Laws and Regulations Database, " the data of the bills of the early period of the Meiji era will be provided within FY2006. For the "Database System for the Minutes of the Imperial Diet, " data entry will be completed within FY 2009.

We will construct digital archives to store and provide digital information as common information resources of the people of Japan.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The "Digital Library from the Meiji Era" (Japanese only) is an image database of books published in the Meiji era (1868-1912) on which users can search for materials by bibliographic data or table of contents, and view books in digital images. To create this Digital Library, the NDL started copyright research on the books published in the Meiji era in FY2000,launched digitization of them in FY2001,and developed the database system for the Digital Library in FY2002. Since then we have been sequentially providing via the Internet books whose copyright has expired or for which the NDL had received permission from the copyright holders.

<Achievements of FY2005>
The way to use materials whose copyright has not expired yet and whose copyright holders or successors remain unidentified is to apply for a compulsory license issued by the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs based on Article 67 of the Copyright Law. In accordance with the Article, the NDL asked the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs for such a license in February and November 2005 so as to get these books digitized and available in the Digital Library. As a result we received the license from the Commissioner and were able to achieve our priority objective and complete the digitization within FY2005. Other digital images of 50,000 titles (approximately 67,000 volumes) published in the Meiji era will be added early in FY2006. 89,000 titles (approximately 127,000 volumes) will be available, accounting for 75% of the books published in the Meiji era and held by the NDL.

Performance indicators and actual performance on the data provided on the "Digital Library from the Meiji Era"

Performance indicators	As of the end of FY2004	As of the end of April FY2006 (estimate)
Number of titles provided	35,000	89,000
Number of volumes provided	55,000	127,000
Number of image files provided	6,600,000	12,910,000

<Future tasks>
The NDL will continuously examine how to deal with the other 16,500 books published in the Meiji era whose copyright has not been cleared. Setting a new priority objective of FY2006 to make most of the books published in the Taisho era (1912-1926) available in the Digital Library by the end of FY2009,we are also promoting copyright clearance and digitization of these books.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The NDL launched the "Web Archiving Project (WARP)" (Japanese only) in FY2002 with the purpose of collecting and preserving digital information as cultural heritage, especially resources on the Internet frequently updated and deleted on a daily basis. Selected domestic websites have been experimentally acquired and preserved on the WARP on a site-by-site basis.

In February 2004,the NDL formulated the "National Diet Library Digital Library Medium Term Plan for 2004" (hereinafter the "Medium Term Plan for 2004") which sets forth in detail the direction in which electronic library services should be oriented at the NDL over the next five years, and has made efforts toward achievement of the plan. As for the web archiving project, one of the pillars in the above plan, the report titled "Concept of the Acquisition System for the Networked Electronic Publications" was submitted by the Legal Deposit System Council, a consultative body to the Librarian, in December 2004. Responding to the report, the NDL has conducted examinations to acquire information on the Internet based on legislation.

The NDL has also promoted development of a system for collecting digital information comprehensively on a website basis and accumulating, preserving and providing it in order according to the time acquired.

<Achievements of FY2005>
The NDL carried out the designing of a basic plan for the web archiving system, investigation on the functions and performance of a web robot (a kind of software collecting networked information automatically by following links to links), and establishment of a system necessary for comprehensive acquisition of information as scheduled. At the same time, for consolidation of the new legal system required to collect and provide Internet information resources, we prepared to draw up bills during FY2005: various investigations necessary for bills; explanations to related institutions and others; collecting opinions from citizens; and coordination among related government agencies. Although having initially intended to have the law approved and carried into effect during the 162nd ordinary Diet session in 2005,we could not submit it to the Diet because it required a long time to design the legal system; thus we failed to accomplish the above priority objective.

For the selective acquisition of Internet resources on a site-by-site basis, experimental WARP has continued and has resulted in a collection of a total 48 million files.

As regards the system development of the digital deposit project which collects digital resources on an individual work basis, not a site basis, the outline of the system design was completed in FY2005.

<Future tasks>
The NDL will continue to work on the legal system for web archiving while gathering information. We will also expand the WARP for acquisition of selected websites on a site basis.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The NDL is attempting to create a comprehensive portal site that will navigate users with one-stop access to a wide range of digital information based on the "Medium Term Plan for 2004." We developed a prototype system to give concrete shape to the functions and techniques necessary for creating a full-fledged system.

<Achievements of FY2005>
In July 2005 the NDL released the first version of an experimental system of the portal site (Japanese only) and has subsequently strengthened the requisite functions and extended its contents.

The experimental system now contains nine of the NDL digital library contents, including the "Digital Library from the Meiji Era, " (Japanese only) the "Rare Books Image Database, " (Japanese only) the National Diet Library Catalog of Japanese books and magazines, the "Japanese Periodical Index, " and the "Collaborative Reference Database System." (Japanese only) It also provides access to contents outside the NDL: the "Aozora Bunko, " the "Digital Okayama Dai-hyakka, " the "Book Map, " the digital archives of the National Archives of Japan, and digital archives held by government agencies. All of them are searchable via the portal site.

In the light of coordination with various digital archives, OAI-PMH¹⁾, SRW²⁾ and RSS³⁾ are adopted as a standard interface, which allows an integrated search.

The NDL added some retrieval functions: the associative search function by which you can retrieve contents considered to be highly related to keywords and sentences you input; the search help function by which you can utilize a subject name authority file and an author name authority file as a dictionary; and the cross search function querying data provider in each search request.

Toward construction of the full-fledged system, the NDL designed a draft of its system infrastructure reflecting the knowledge of various common interface specifications and metadata specifications that we had gained through development of the experimental system.

• 1)OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) is a protocol used to harvest metadata descriptions of recourses on the Internet. It is not an authorized standard by a standards body such as ISO, but has practically become de facto standard.
• 2)SRW (Search/Retrieve Web Service) is the advanced version protocol of Z39.50 and an XML oriented protocol for performing searches and other information retrieval operations across the Internet. It is a web service based protocol to retrieve a remote various networked resources.
• 3)RSS (RDF (Resource Description Framework) Site Summary) is a description framework whose format is specified in XML format for structuring metadata information such as headings and digests on web pages, and is particularly used for sending updated information.

<Future tasks>
On the basis of these achievements the NDL is planning to examine the experimental system, and design and develop a full-fledged system in FY2006. In addition, the NDL will promote and raise awareness of the usability and method for coordination of the NDL portal project in order that the digital archive systems inside and outside the NDL can operate as a data provider based on a common specification and coordinate with other portal sites. It is included in the priority objective to provide the complete system within FY2007.

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.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
To accommodate increasing electronic resources, the NDL has collected electronic materials including electronic journals, CD-ROMs and DVDs, and offered them mainly in the Electronic Resources Room in the Tokyo Main Library and the General Collections Room in the Kansai-kan. In particular the NDL provides electronic journals (Japanese only) covering the entire area of subjects; ProQuest 5000 International, OCLC Electronic Collections Online, and Science Direct, etc. are available.

Besides expanding the range of electronic resources, since FY2004 the NDL has been promoting steadily development of a unified service control system and groundwork for a network system in the Tokyo Main Library in order to equip more materials rooms with electronic resources and to improve printout services for such resources.

<Achievements of FY2005>
The use of electronic journals has become prevalent among users at the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan, resulted in 67,000 articles requested in FY2005,which is 1.2 times as many as in FY2004. The number of sheets of printout for electronic journals was 158,000 in total.

In August 2005 the NDL formulated a practical policy for the electronic information services that will be expanded in the Tokyo Main Library from FY2006. We have also continued to build on the system and to set up networking facilities.

<Future tasks>
The NDL has been working to make it easier for visitors to use electronic resources under the new service system from October 2006.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The NDL has focused on collecting and organizing materials related to science and technology in order to contribute to the promotion of science and technology in Japan. On the basis of reports and proposals from the annual meeting of the Council on Organization of Materials on Science and Technology (established to give advice on request by the Librarian and to investigate and deliberate on the NDL's plan for the organization of materials on science and technology), the NDL forms plans for effective acquisition of materials.

In January 2004 the "Plan for the Organization of Science and Technology Information" (Japanese only) was formulated, and in December the "Proposals for the organization of science and technology in the NDL" (Japanese only) was approved at the 45th meeting of the Council on Organization of Materials on Science and Technology. Accordingly the NDL increased its collection of foreign science and technology periodicals by a large margin.

The NDL has been also making efforts to offer better access to materials on science and technology. The "Directory of Japanese Scientific Periodicals, "* which provides bibliographic data and data of the editing institutions of science and technology periodicals published in Japan, has been changed from paper form to an online version since October 2001. The NDL-OPAC (NDL Online Public Access Catalog) has enabled search for 1.76 million data of Standards, Technical Reports, etc., since FY2004.

* From May 11, 2009, renamed
"Kagakugijuturonbunshi / kaigiroku Database"(Japanese Only).

<Achievements of FY2005>
The NDL carried out an organization of materials based on the "Plan for the Organization of Science and Technology Information." Approximately 1,000 titles of foreign electronic journals (many in science and technology fields), were added as well as continuing subscriptions to the foreign periodicals which were added in FY2004. The number of reports and articles in these journals used increased 20% over that of FY2004. Some 180,000 bibliographic data of periodical articles published from 1972 to 1974 were retrospectively added to the "Japanese Periodicals Index (Science and Technology)" in FY2004

With the aim of enhancing reference information on science and technology, the "Guide for Search by Theme, " (Japanese only) available on the NDL website, added 90 new entries on subjects relating to science and technology. The number of visitors to this field of the "Guide for Search by Theme" has substantially increased, from 13,000 in March 2005 to 28,000 in the same month of 2006.

Performance indicators and actual performance on organization of science and technology information.

Performance indicators		FY2004	FY2005
Foreign science and technology periodicals	Number of cumulative titles	About 3,500	About 3,500
Foreign electronic journals	Number of titles newly added	223	957
"Guide for Search by Theme" (Science and Technology)	Number of entries newly added	29	90
	Number of visitors to the website	150,691	261,032

<Future tasks>
The "Third Science and Technology Basic Policy" of Japan, which was adopted at a Cabinet meeting in March 2006,mentions the strengthening of the NDL's function as a part of the construction of a basis for research and information. Also in view of the "Proposals for the organization of science and technology information in the NDL, " the NDL is in the process of establishing the "Second Basic Plan for the Organization of Science and Technology Information" and will implement it.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The NDL introduced the User Registration System in FY2002 to give greater convenience. At the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan, services that registered users are entitled to use include simplified entry procedures and inter-site loan service from the Tokyo Main Library to the Kansai-kan, and vice versa.

In remote services the NDL also enabled registered users to request photocopies on the NDL-OPAC via the Internet in FY2002.

<Achievements of FY2005>
The NDL has been continuously involved in publicity of the User Registration System in FY2005 following its expansion and dissemination in the previous year, timed with the opening of the renovated Tokyo Main Library in October 2004. As a result about 33,000 users became new registrants, reaching a total of 97,000 registered users as of the end of FY2005. According to a user questionnaire survey conducted in FY2005,more than 60% of on-site users who visited the NDL at least once a month were registrants in both the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan. It indicates that the User Registration System has spread considerably among users.

The number of requests for photocopies from remote users through the Internet in FY2005 was over 216,000,an increase of about 20,000 requests compared with that of FY2004. Within only three years since the services were launched,77% out of the total requests for photocopies are requested online.

Performance indicators and actual performance on registered users and requests for remote copying service

Performance Indicators		FY2004	FY2005
Number of registrants (as individuals)	Number of new registrants	30,479	33,364
	Number of cumulative registrants	64,085	97,425
Photocopies from remote users (Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan)	Total number of requests for photocopies of which requests made through the NDL-OPAC	about 270,000 about 197,000 (73%)	about 280,000 about 216,000 (77%)

<Future tasks>
The NDL will try to popularize the User Registration System through day-to-day operations instead of including it in priority objectives in and after FY2006 because we could accomplish the above priority objective as a result of our two-year efforts from FY2004. In particular we intend to vigorously spread the use of the User Registration System and photocopy services via the Internet to the remote users who are still requesting photocopies by postal mail and fax.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The NDL put the NDL-OPAC and the NDL Asian Language Materials OPAC (Online catalog for Chinese and Korean periodicals owned by the NDL and books written in Asian languages organized after 1986) on the NDL website in October FY2002 to enhance user convenience inside and outside Japan. Since then we have extended sequentially the coverage of materials searchable on the website. A retrospective conversion project has been promoted for materials for which no access method had been prepared, based on the "Plan for Retrospective Conversion 2002" established in FY2002.

The NDL-OPAC also carries not only bibliographic records but also holdings and location information and the circulation status of each material; this is very convenient for users when requesting materials.

<Achievements of FY2005>
In FY2005,the NDL increased a significant volume of the bibliographic data on the NDL-OPAC: it provides a total of 14.9 million bibliographic data and Japanese periodicals index data as of the end of FY2005. The NDL Asian Language Materials OPAC added a total of 56,000 bibliographic data of books written in Indonesian, Mongolian and Malay, and the former collection of the Shanghai Xinhua Bookstore. As a result, more than 70% of Asian languages materials owned by the NDL are now recorded on the NDL Asian Language Materials OPAC (the rate was 51% as the end of FY2004).

Based on the "Plan for Retrospective Conversion 2002," the NDL carried out the retrospective conversion of study guides, Chinese books, booklets of government agencies and Western old books in order to provide them on the NDL-OPAC, and put and updated approximately 190,000 bibliographic data on the NDL-OPAC. For the "Japanese Periodicals Index, " (Japanese only) we finished the retrospective conversion for some 180,000 articles and have set out to convert some 450,000 articles.

For the organization of each material's item information, retrospective conversion for some 739,000 Japanese books acquired by the NDL before 1948 and 120,573 reports under the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology held by the Kansai-kan was completed.

Performance indicators and actual performance on organizing and providing bibliographic data

Performance indicators			FY2004	FY2005
Number of data provided (accumulation as of the end of each year)	NDL-OPAC	Bibliographic data*	7,463,624	7,860,657
		Japanese Periodicals Index data	6,477,302	7,037,440
		Subtotal	13,940,926	14,898,097
		Authority data	882,367	923,514
		Total	14,823,293	15,821,611
	The NDL Asian Language Materials OPAC	Bibliographic data	140,952	194,881
Number of data newly updated	Bibliographic data	Total of which those created based on the "Plan for Retrospective Conversion 2002"	681,025 about 130,000	484,194 about 190,000
	Japanese Periodical Index	Total of which those created based on the "Plan for Retrospective Conversion 2002"	477,042 -	596,095 about 180,000

* Materials on the Allied Occupation of Japan (259,252 entries as of FY2004 and 277,490 entries as of FY2005) and the Prange collection (32,227 entries as of both FY2004 and FY2005) are available only inside the NDL.

<Future tasks>
The NDL are planning to continue a retrospective conversion of study guides, maps, Japanese doctoral dissertations, etc. in order to make it possible for users to search and request many more materials on the NDL-OPAC. Materials written in Arabic and in Persian are expected to be recorded in the NDL Asian Language Materials.

In addition, the NDL has been working on revision of the National Diet Library List of Subject Headings (NDLSH) (Japanese only) to make it more convenient to search bibliographic information. Parts of NDLSH revised in FY2005 have been put on the NDL website since June 2006.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
With the purpose of introducing users to the library's valuable collections, the Tokyo Main Library has held Regular Exhibitions and showed some parts of its collections under various themes. Up until the end of FY2004,we have had 136 exhibitions. The International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL) has also held exhibitions and events to make children's books attractive and provide opportunities for children to become familiar with them through introducing the library materials.

At the same time, the NDL has extended digital exhibitions so that users inside and outside Japan can have access to the library's collections without being limited by time and place. Various unique collections featuring certain subjects are available in the "NDL Gallery"of the NDL website and in the "Digital Gallery of World Pictures Books"of the ILCL website.

<Achievements of FY2005>
The NDL held the biggest special exhibition since the Exhibition Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Opening of the NDL in FY1998. "Fauna and Flora in Illustrations -Natural History of the Edo era-, " (Japanese only) the theme of the exhibition, presented a wealth of materials related to the natural history of the Edo era (1603-1867). It was held in the Kansai-kan as well as the Tokyo Main Library, and attracted a total of 3,879 visitors. It proved to be successful as over 80% of visitors replied the exhibition was "very good" and "good" to the questionnaire given to them.

All of the materials presented in this special exhibition can be viewed in the "NDL Gallery" of the NDL website. So far the "NDL Gallery" features 10 electronic exhibitions. The number of accesses to the Gallery is about 470,000 a year.

The ILCL has held five exhibitions including "Russian children's literature from folklore to contemporary fiction" and "Struwwelpeter and other German children's books" and had attracted 83,388 visitors by the end of March 2006.

The "Digital Gallery of World Pictures Books" on the ILCL website added "Jugendstil Picture Book Artists and Their Contemporaries."The hit count to the Gallery has reached about 49,000 a year.

Performance indicators and actual performance of exhibitions

Performance indicators		FY2004	FY2005
Special exhibition at the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan	Number of visitors   Tokyo Main Library   Kansai-kan   Total	- - -	2,165 1,714 3,879
Exhibitions at the ILCL	Number of visitors	60,823	88,388
"NDL Gallery" on the NDL website	Number of visitors to each front page	-	467,550
	Number of visitors to image files	6,086,326	9,488,822
"Digital Gallery of World Pictures Books" on the ILCL website	Number of visitors to the front page	39,108	48,832

<Future tasks>
The NDL aims to hold more enjoyable digital and ILCL exhibitions to meet users' expectations. An exhibition commemorating the 60th anniversary of the opening of the NDL in FY2008 is also being planned.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The Prange Collection is a collection of materials submitted to the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ/SCAP) for censorship. Prof. Gordon W. Prange (1910-1980), who was in Japan as chief of General Douglas MacArthur's historical staff after his Navy service recognized their historical value and sent them to be stored and provided at his own original university, the University of Maryland. In order to make the valuable collection available in Japan, the NDL has been collaborating with the University of Maryland to collect microfilms of the newspapers and news service dispatches, and providing them in the Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room since FY1992.

<Achievements of FY2005>
The University of Maryland and the NDL agreed to work together on a new microfilming project from FY2005 and exchanged memorandums in May 2005. As Phrase 1 of the project, we have decided to deal with children's books, and have embarked on concrete procedures for microfilming along with consultations.

<Future tasks>
One of our priority objectives is to start providing color microfilms of the collection at the ILCL by the end of FY2006.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL) is the sole national library of its kind in Japan, founded as a branch of the NDL in 2000. Its basic functions include; assisting the activities of domestic and foreign libraries which are in the front rank of library services for children, functioning as a national center supporting a wide range of research and studies on children's books and publishers, sharing the pleasure of reading with children and giving them opportunities to become acquainted with libraries and the world of books.

<Achievements of FY2005>
Visitors to the ILCL exceeded 130,000 in FY2005,an increase of about 14% over the previous year. Users of materials rooms and the number of volumes requested also increased.

For enrichment of the ILCL's collection, we endeavored to acquire uncollected Japanese children's books and periodicals while concentrating on collecting new children's books published in the Asian region, especially materials written in Chinese.

For support for school libraries, the NDL newly added "Asian Sets (books of China and countries in South East Asia)" to its selected sets of books which consist of 40-60 children's books assembled by subject to lend to school libraries. The number of "Book Sets Lending Service to School Libraries" provided exceeded 200.

The "Story Hour for Children" on Saturdays and Sunday was held 207 times in the year. We began to provide a "Story Hour for Children Card": children can put a stamp on their card every time they participate.

(For exhibitions, please refer to one of our priority objectives, "To actively hold exhibitions and digital exhibitions adapted to the suitable themes that make public the library's precious materials to a wider range of users.")

Responding to the "Report of the Board of Inquiry on Expansion of Library Services of the ILCL"(Japanese only) of March 2005,the NDL examined the direction to which our services should be operated in the medium and long term and established the "Basic Plan for Expansion of Library Services of the ILCL" to evolve new services as a library for children's literature. This plan specifies the following three pillars of library services: (1) to organize comprehensive children's literature collections and provide them, (2) to support activities for encouraging children to read, (3) to promote coordination and cooperation with related institutions inside and outside Japan, and international activities.

Performance indicators and actual performance on use of the ILCL

Performance Indicators	FY2004	FY2005
Number of visitors	115,119	130,877
Number of books delivered	32,407	39,905
Number of copies made	3,429	9,553
Number of "Book Sets Lending Service to School Libraries"	182	210
Number of "Story Hour for Children" held	190	207

<Future tasks>
The NDL is planning to authorize the "Basic Plan for Expansion of Library Services of the ILCL" as early as possible in FY2006 and set a priority objective addressing enrichment of the ILCL collections, effective provision of its collections, and upgrade of the information-providing functions such as the "Union Catalog of Children's Literature." We will also conduct building research on improvement of the facilities required for expansion of services.

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.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
Being affiliated with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL), the NDL has vigorously participated in international conferences and events to facilitate cooperation and coordination with foreign libraries. For cooperation with libraries in the Asian region, the NDL has continued to hold mutual visit programs with the National Library of China, the National Library of Korea, and the National Assembly Library of Korea.

The NDL has been designated as the IFLA/PAC (Core Activity for Preservation and Conservation) Regional Centre for Asia and has been involved in the activities for preservation: to collect and provide information related to preservation; to promote education and training, public relations and so on. The NDL also has been the editing office of the CDNLAO newsletter of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania (CDNLAO).

<Achievements of FY2005>
As regards the IFLA, in addition to 18 Sections in total already registered, the NDL has joined three more Sections: the Academic and Research Libraries Section, the Reference and Information Services Section and the Newspapers Section. We have also begun to have a staff serving as a corresponding member on the Cataloging Section.

In our cooperation with libraries in the Asian region, the mutual visit programs with the National Libraries of China and Korea have proceeded. We also sent delegates to a total of five international conferences held in the region including the CDNLAO, and at four of these conferences our staff made presentations. At the 14th CDNLAO in March 2006,our proposal to host the 2008 CDNLAO at the NDL in 2008 was approved. Three issues of the CDNLAO Newsletter, no. 53-55,were published on the NDL website in FY2005.

As regards the IFLA/PAC, the NDL held in December at the same time the Meeting of Directors of IFLA/PAC Regional Centers and the Open Seminar on the Damage Caused by the Indian Ocean Tsunami ,gathering 168 participants and receiving favorable notice.

For cooperation with libraries outside the Asian region, the National Library of the Netherlands and the NDL concluded an arrangement to cooperate to deal with common issues such as the preservation of electronic information. We also invited the chief executive of the British Library and other experts to the NDL as lecturers for a symposium titled "Library Reformation in the Digital Era - Challenges and Prospects " and other lecture meetings.

<Future tasks>
The NDL is currently undertaking the formulation of basic policies for future cooperation which is to be confirmed within the first half of FY2006 and then publicized on the NDL website and by other means. The new priority objective includes holding a pre-conference at the NDL themed "Preservation and Conservation in Asia" as a project relating to the 72nd IFLA General Conference and Council, in August 2006 in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The NDL has so far put efforts into offering varied traditional meeting-type training programs for librarians on, for example, digitization, Asian information, science and technology materials, and reference. In FY2003 we also launched development of a remote training (e-learning) program system utilizing Internet technology so that librarians will be able to participate in training no matter where they are. Then we chose "preservation" as the theme of the first remote training program and created course materials and a system for the training in FY2004.

<Achievements of FY2005>
After completing the course materials on preservation, the NDL started a test run of the system in March 2006. Although we attempted to offer the program from late FY2005,development of program contents was delayed and we did not achieve the above objective. In June 2006 we intend to kick off full-scale programs.

<Future tasks>
Two remote training projects with 150 trainees each in FY2006 are now under contemplation. In addition, we will begin to produce two more sets of course materials.

<Background and achievements up to FY2004>
The Collaborative Reference Database Project (Japanese only) collects and provides case data including records of inquiries, answers and know-how on reference, data of manuals to find resources on specific subjects, and profile data of member libraries from public libraries, university libraries, special libraries and others and the NDL. This aims to back up research and investigative activities by members of the public as well as reference services at libraries and elsewhere.

It has shifted to full-scale operation after a three-year experimental stage since FY2002 and released its data to member libraries in April 2004.

<Achievements of FY2005>
FY2005 is the first year of the full-scale project. The NDL invited further participating libraries from July to September and 107 libraries joined, associating a total of 390 libraries and others including 54 prefectural libraries and 93 university libraries. Approximately 7,000 entries were newly added in FY2005,which amounts to more than 21,000 accumulated data as of the end of FY2005.

In December 2005 the NDL opened the database to the public on the NDL website; thus we were able to accomplish the priority objective. The number of accesses to the database surpassed 150,000. We think that this project is steadily becoming known to a wider public.

Performance indicators and actual performance on the Collaborative Reference Database Project

Performance indicators		FY2004	FY2005
Number of members	Newly joined	135	107
	Total	283	390
Number of accumulated data	Case data on reference	13,620	20,177
	Data of manuals to find resources on specific subjects	167	357
	Data of special collections	158	231
	Total	13,945	20,765
Number of accesses to data*		29,516	151,761

* This includes the number of accesses from the public from December 2005.

<Future tasks>
To further promote contribution of reference service records to the database and to promote its utilization is set as one of the priority objectives. To accomplish this, the NDL will provide guidance to member libraries on how to make the most of the database and will try to make it known to libraries and the public to promote its utilization.