Service Standards for FY2004 and their Evaluation
The National Diet Library has set out the following minimum standards for its services, aiming to keep up our service performances in an open and consistent manner. At the end of each fiscal year, we assess how we met the standards and make public the evaluation report.
FY2004 was the first year that the NDL introduced this new evaluation system. The result of the evaluation of FY2004 service standards on 31 out of 34 standards set in 18 areas is as follows:
Remote services
| Service standards for FY2004 | Evaluation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target area | Standard values | Actual performance | Target achieved | Supplementary explanation |
| Days taken to respond to requests for copying via the Internet | ||||
| Days taken to ship requested copies: within 5 working days after receiving the request | 80% or better | 86.3% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling in Jan. 2005. Samples taken from requests received in the morning and shipped to addresses within the country. |
| Days taken to inform the reason for not being able to provide requested copies: within 4 working days after receiving the request | 80% or better | 88.0% | Yes | |
| Days taken to respond to requests for inter library loan | ||||
| Days taken to ship requested materials: within 4 working days after receiving the request | 70% or better | 95.3% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling for the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan in Jan. 2005 and for the International Library of Children's Literature in Sep. 2004. |
| Days taken to inform the reason for not being able to provide requested materials: within 4 working days after receiving the request | 70% or better | 100.0% | Yes | |
| Days taken to respond to reference inquiries by mail or fax via libraries | ||||
| Days taken to respond to reference inquiries: within 20 days after receiving the request | 75% or better | 71.4% | No | Assessed by random sampling for the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan from Aug. to Oct. 2004 and for the International Library of Children's Literature in Sep. 2004. Actual performance by facility: Tokyo Main Library and Kansai-kan: 70.6% (88.7% for simple reference inquiries such as location searches)International Library of Children's Literature: 85.7% Future directions: to review the work flow of processing reference inquiries by mail or fax to shorten the processing time |
| Available time of the NDL website | ||||
| To make 99.8% or better of predefined available time(24 hours-a-day/7 days-a-week) available | 99.8% or better | 100.0% | Yes | No down time of the NDL website. |
| Available time of the NDL-OPAC | ||||
| To make 95% or more of predefined available time (7:00-28:00 for Monday to Friday; 7:00-25:00 for Sundays; 7:00-22:00 for the third Sunday) available | 95% or better | 95.2% | Yes | Of 357-hour down time,8 hours was due to system failure and the rest due to system maintenance. |
| Frequency of updating union catalogs provided on the NDL website | ||||
| Frequency of updating National Union Catalog Network | Daily | Daily | Yes | Made public on the NDL website from Dec.6,2004.51 libraries of prefectures and major municipal cities contributed data to the union catalog which amounts to 28.8 million bibliographic data including 7.9 million of basic bibliographic data (authoritative or unique data). In FY2004,660,000 basic bibliographic data and 3.4 million bibliographic data was newly added. |
| Frequency of updatingNational Union Catalog of Braille & Recorded Books in Japan | Monthly | Monthly | Yes | Contains about 310,000 bibliographic data from 229 institutions across the nation. In FY2004,17,000 data were newly added. |
| Frequency of updating Union Catalog of Newspapers in Japan | Irregularly | Updated each time data from contributing libraries arrived | Yes | Contains 20,000 bibliographic data and 50,000 location data from 1,251 institutions. In FY2004,500 bibliographic data and 700 location data was added, and 2,600 bibliographic data and 1,500 location data updated. The database was updated nearly every day. |
| Frequency of updating Union Catalog Database of Children's Literature | Weekly | Weekly | Yes | Contains about 400,000 bibliographic data from seven major libraries of children's literature in Japan. In FY2004,34,000 data were newly added and 100,000 data updated. |
| Availability of domestic publications acquired via the legal deposit system | ||||
| Days taken to upload bibliographic data of the publications above to the Japanese National Bibliography Weekly List on the NDL website: within 60 days after accession date | 80% or better | 99.6% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling in Nov. 2004. Samples taken from books and newly accessioned periodicals acquired via the legal deposit system. |
| Days taken to make bibliographic data of the publications above accessible on the NDL-OPAC: within 70 days after accession date | 80% or better | 98.8% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling in Nov. 2004. Samples taken from books and periodicals acquired via the legal deposit system |
| Number of additions of electronic exhibitions on the NDL website | ||||
| Number of additions to electronic exhibitions on the NDL website | 3 exhibitions a year | 3 exhibitions a year | Yes | "Birth of the Constitution of Japan (phase 2), " "Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures, " and "Incunabula - Dawn of Western Printing" were newly added. |
| Number of additions to Picture Book Gallery of the International Library of Children's Literature website | 1 exhibition a year | 1 exhibition a year | Yes | "Jugendstil Picture Book Artist and Their Contemporaries" was made public in May 2005. |
On-site services (Tokyo Main Library)
| Service standards for FY2004 | Evaluation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target area | Standard values | Actual performance | Target achieved | Supplementary explanation |
| Number of titles of electronic journals available in the Electronic Resources Room | ||||
| Number of titles of electronic journals available in the Electronic Resources Room | Over 10,000 titles | About 15,000 titles | Yes | As of the end of FY2004. |
| Time to process requests for closed-stack materials | ||||
| Time for delivery from stacks: within 30 minutes | 95% or better | 99.3% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling from Nov. to Dec. 2004. Samples taken from Book Counter, PeriodicalCounter and Newspaper Reading Room Counter. |
| Time to inform the reason for not being able to provide requested materials: within 30 minutes | 95% or better | 95.7% | Yes | |
| Time to process requests for copying service | ||||
| Time to process requests for Same-day copying service: within 30 minutes | 80% or better | 84.0% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling in Nov. 2004. |
| Time to process requests for Regular copying service: within 4 working days | 100% | For ordinary requests 100.0％ | Yes | Assessed by random sampling in Nov. 2004. Samples taken from the ordinary requests that seemed possible to be processed within 4 working days and excluding extraordinarily difficult cases. In the case where photographing is required before copying, it takes 7 working days. In the case where a huge amount of copies are requested at once, the shipping day may be set in more than 5 working days after obtaining permission from the requestor. In both cases the NDL provided the requested copies by due dates. |
| Time to deliver materials held in the Kansai-kan | ||||
| Time to deliver requested materials from the Kansai-kan: within 4 working days | 100% | 100.0% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling in Jan. 2005. As the number of requests perday for delivering materials from the Kansai-kan is restricted, there are cases where the requests must be suspended. |
On-site services (Kansai-kan)
| Service standards for FY2004 | Evaluation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target area | Standard values | Actual performanc | Target achieved | Supplementary explanation |
| Number of open-access materials | ||||
| Number of open-access materials in General Collections Room | 50,000 volumes or more | About 72,0000 volumes | Yes | As of the end of FY2004 |
| Number of open-access materials in Asian Resources Room | 30,000 volumes or more | About 33,000 volumes | Yes | |
| Number of open-access electronic journal titles | 10,000 titles or more | About 15,000 titles | Yes | |
| Time to process requests for closed-stack materials | ||||
| Time for delivery from stacks: within 30 minutes | 95% or better | 100.0% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling in Jan. 2005. |
| Time to inform the reason for not being able to provide requested materials: within 30 minutes | 95% or better | - | Not Measurable | The random sampling in Mar.2005 did not show any statistically meaningful result as there were few materials that could not be delivered. |
| Time to deliver materials held in the Tokyo Main Library | ||||
| Time to deliver requested materials from the Tokyo Main Library: within 4 working days | 100% | 100.0% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling in Mar. 2005. As the number of requests per day for delivering materials from Tokyo Main Library is restricted, there are cases where the requests must be suspended. |
On-site services (International Library of Children's Literature)
| Service standards for FY2004 | Evaluation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target area | Standard values | Actual performance | Target achieved | Supplementary explanation |
| Exhibitions and events | ||||
| Number of days exhibitions are open to the public: ratio to library opening days | 90% or better | 92.0% | Yes | Two exhibitions ("Wisdom of Lotus – Children's Literature in India" and "Animals in Children's Books II ; the Chinese Zodiac as Keyword") were open to the public for a total of 263 days. |
| Frequency of events | 7 times a year or more | 13 events | Yes | In addition to exhibitions and lectures, programs for children during the school vacation were held. |
| Numbers of open-access materials | ||||
| Number of open-access materials in Children's Library | 8,000 or more volumes | 8,500 volumes | Yes | As of the end of FY2004. |
| Number of open-access materials in "Meet the World" | more volumes from 80 countries | volumes introducing 120 countries | Yes | |
| Number of open-access digital resources in Media Corner | 100 or more resources | 104 resources | Yes | |
| Time to process requests for closed-stack materials from the Researchers' Reading Room I & II | ||||
| Time for delivery from stacks: within 20 minutes | 95% or better | 98.5% | Yes | Assessed by random sampling from Sep. to Oct. 2004. |
| Time to inform the reason for not being able to provide requested materials: within 20 minutes | 95% or better | - | Not Measurable | The random sampling from Sep. to Oct. 2004 did not show any statistically meaningful result as there were few materials that could not be delivered. |