The fiscal 1997 budget was approved in the Diet on March 28, 1997, after going through smooth discussion. The total amount of the original budget granted for the NDL is 17,887,880,000 yen a 1,130,820,000 yen (6.7%) increase over the previous year. This is mainly attributed to increase in the expenses for development of information systems, and for buildings and facilities.

The composition of the total budget is: salary and personnel expenses 55.6% (59.8% the year before), acquisition of library materials 7.0% (7.1%), development of information systems 6.0% (5.7%), office expenses 11.1% (11.3%), buildings and facilities 20.3% (16.1%). The ratio of the last item has increased as it did in the previous year. Some 2,140 million yen to acquire the land for Kansai-kan (provisional name) is the main reason.

The following are characteristic items of the fiscal 1997 budget:

1. Kansai-kan project

Concerning the preparations for the construction of the NDL's Kansai-kan, expenditures were appropriated for basic and practical planning based on the winning design of a design competition, and for acquisition of land.

2. Information systems

The NDL has established various information systems and makes use of them for reader service and other work at present. When the Kansai-kan opens, we need to greatly improve our library service in cooperation with the Tokyo main library. To fulfill that purpose, it is indispensable to devise highly developed information systems, including electronic library functions. Therefore, in planning the budget of FY97, we decided to build up various information systems, taking account of the integrated use in the future.

Some of the systems we are planning to develop are as follows: administrative systems for acquisition of domestic publications to accelerate and promote efficiency in this area ; online processing system for the table of contents of books and periodicals to ensure wide document supply service by developing document retrieval function ; electronic networks between branch libraries to realize advanced circulation of information. In addition, we secured the budget to promote the global electronic library project agreed upon at the G7 Ministerial Conference on the Global Information Society as the representative of Japan, which is one of the theme leader countries. We also added the amount of necessary expenditure to develop the online cataloging system and ILL system which started up the year before.

3. Acquisition of library materials

Expenses to acquire library materials, which is the main role of NDL, rose by 18 million yen concerning compensation for materials deposited. Expense to purchase materials related to science and technology (CD-ROMs included) also rose by about 25 million yen.

4. Services to the Diet

For the NDL, as a parliamentary library, enhancing and accelerating the information supply service to the Diet, as well as improving research functions, is crucial. This is the second year of the three-year plan to establish an overall reference system for the Diet, with digitized publications and staff research reports.

We made an immense rise in expenses to establish a full-text database of debates, which has been carried out from FY 96 in collaboration with the Secretariats of both Houses.

5. Internationl Library of Children's Literature

In expectation of the opening of the International Library of Children's Literature in 1999 (first stage), appropriations have been made for renovating the Ueno Branch Library, purchasing foreign children's books, and developing information systems for children's books.

The main items and their appropriations are as follows: (in thousands)