I wish you a Happy New Year.

Google made a real stir last year. The huge impact of its digitization project forced publishers and libraries to think of new directions to take. Now that new digital readers are commercially available, and different types of digital newspapers are about to be launched, 2010 will see changes in how we read daily and use libraries. In this National Year of Reading and a time of major transformation for publishers and libraries, the onus is upon us to think about new reading and tapping of knowledge.

The worldwide march of digital libraries is ever gaining momentum. The President of France even declares that they will carry out digitization by issuing government bonds. The National Diet Library is also embarking upon a large-scale digitization with, from April forward, a scheme to archive Internet information of public institutions extensively.

In order to provide such digital collections of the National Diet Library all over Japan, we need to establish a reasonable framework to distribute digital publications. Though we have already launched consultations with stakeholders, the public expectation is high for us to hammer out something concrete this year. Thus, we anticipate and are more than ready to rise to many challenges ahead this year, continuing to provide library services at our best.

Your continued guidance and support will be much appreciated.

Makoto Nagao, Librarian, National Diet Library