No. 112, December 1999

Electronic Publications
and National Bibliography in Japan

Naoko Harai
Assistant Chief, Book Processing Division, Books Department
National Diet Library (Japan)

Contents

1. Electronic Library Concept
2. Acquisition of electronic publications
3. Bibliographic control of electronic publications
3-1Physical Electronic Publications and Japan/MARC
3-2Intangible electronic publications and national bibliography

The National Diet Library (NDL) has already reformed its Japan/MARC to include bibliographic data of physical format or tangible electronic publications such as CD-ROMs; the Japanese National Centre for ISDS, located in the NDL, has also begun to give ISSN to electronic journals. How to deal with remotely accessible or intangible publications is, however, yet be settled ⁽¹⁾.

Before getting down to the theme Electronic Publications and National Bibliography, first, I would like to draw your attention to the Electronic Library Concept of our Library and the recent trend of its legal deposit system reform.

1. Electronic Library Concept

NDL is aiming to make its electronic library a reality in 2002 when the Kansai-kan, its new facility, opens. This is why NDL announced its Electronic Library Concept in May 1998, which depicted what its electronic library should be and how it should operate. The Concept emphasized the following framework.

1. Reinforcement of the services for the Diet (Japanese Parliament) taking advantage of electronic library functions
2. Acquisition and preservation of domestic electronic publications
3. Compilation of bibliography for and bibliographic control of electronic publications
4. Supply of electronic publications to the public and navigation to the information resource
5. Coordination and cooperation with domestic and foreign organizations in digitizing materials and developing electronic libraries

It especially referred to administrative information as one of the primary collections.

Following this Concept, NDL experimentally converted and made available print typesetting information, drew up a guideline for image data conversion, carried out various other trials and examined a great many aspects, mainly focusing on the technical side and in cooperation with other organizations. It also made up an experimental plan for the acquisition, preservation and supply of administrative information, which pointed out the necessity of an administrative information database that would enable us to retrieve digital media and paper media eqally.

This fiscal year we set up the Electronic Library Development Office as an executive body to materialize the Electronic Library Concept. NDL is also planning to experimentally preserve administrative information on the Internet Web sites of six of 25 central government offices, which it is deleted.

2. Acquisition of electronic publications

NDL acquires optical discs and magnetic discs published in Japan via donation, purchase and other methods. In 1997 it received some 1,000 items. We do not collect intangible electronic publications.

It is essential to reform the current legal deposit system in order to enhance our acquisitions in years to come, in response to the rapid increase of electronic publications. At present we are preparing an amendment to the pertinent regulations, which will allow us to acquire physical format electronic publications through the legal deposit system, perhaps from 2001. On the other hand, intangible electronic publications will still remain outside the legal deposit system for the time being and will be collected selectively by contract.

3. Bibliographic control of electronic publications

As the recommendation of ICNBS (International Conference on National Bibliographic Services, Copenhagen, November 25-27, 1998) declares, we should assure no less accessibility of electronic publications than that of other media.

In international terms ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Description) changed from ISBD Computer File (CF) to ISBD Electronic Resource (ER), around the time when in Japan the Committee of Cataloguing of the Japan Library Association made public the draft revision of the Nippon(Japan) Cataloguing Rules 1987 (NCR) as it concerned the chapter 9 Computer File. Because the draft was based on ISBD (CF) second edition, the Committee is now revising the draft again, taking account of the coordination with ISBD (ER).

NDL, the central library of the nation, has been examining the bibliographic control of electronic publications as part of the improvement of its national bibliographic services ⁽²⁾, while keeping an eye on the NCR revision. I would like to elaborate on this next.

3-1 Physical Electronic Publications and Japan/MARC

The National bibliographic services of NDL are now experiencing the greatest change since the launch of Japan/MARC. NDL revised the principle of its national bibliographic services in February 1997, partly to cope with electronic publications.

We had to expand the coverage of Japan/MARC and enrich its data elements in order to fit into it physical format electronic publications. The coverage was broadened in April 1997 and in January 1998 the Japan/MARC format was revised and its data elements were increased. We have already started to carry physical format electronic publications in Japan/MARC since this March. NDL will make continuing efforts and revise the MARC again in future to add to the data elements and to improve its bibliographic information.

The Japan/MARC format is quite different from the UNIMARC format despite the initial intention to model it on the latter, because it was conceived before UNIMARC could handle Japanese. UNIMARC has itself been changing to cope with different languages and diverse materials. Reflecting also on global distribution, in 1998 NDL began to develop a Japan/MARC-UNIMARC version. It will be distributed on magnetic tape like the present Japan/MARC, and we also made special efforts to develop the CD-ROM version. The format is common for monographs and serials, as is retrieval software. Authority data, which has already been distributed in UNIMARC format as Japan/MARC(A), will come out in a new version and in its CD-ROM version the retrieval software will be shared with bibliographic data.

When the Japan/MARC-UNIMARC version comes out, the above-mentioned problem of how to fit into MARC electronic publications will disappear. Paper materials and electronic materials will be retrievable equally, though at the moment 'Electronic' materials means only those of physical form. Now, one CD-ROM is for serials and others for monographs. However, it will be settled eventually and then the difference between monographs and serials will be gone forever when you search Japan/MARC.

3-2 Intangible electronic publications and national bibliography

Now I would like to move on to the issue of the bibliographic information of intangible electronic publications. We have started to study this year, sent questionnaires to foreign national libraries as well as domestic libraries and are trying to identify what is important; this will include, for example, bibliographic control and keeping common foundations with materials in other media, handling data elements unique to intangible electronic publications, the problem of which unit (URL, etc.) is to be treated as an entry in the multi-linked environment, the creation and use of metadata, and cooperation with other organizations.

In Japan only a few libraries collect intangible electronic publications at the moment. Their holdings are such things as databases, electronic journals and dictionaries. Catalogues are quite often not compiled and, as to bibliographic data, the situation is that some libraries have mere lists of their holdings on the Web site while others just have plans to produce some sort of bibliographic information. Regarding metadata, general studies and research are being carried out. It can be described as a wait-and-see situation with the expectation of improvement of bibliographic control such as the revision of NCR and Japan/MARC.

NDL is now studying how to acquire and organize electronic publications and is conducting relevant experiments, in the process of bringing the Electronic Library Concept to life. We will be committing ourselves to solving a pile of problems in order to make the national bibliographic services appropriate for the ever-advancing information society. We will keep in touch with publishers of electronic materials and other organizations, and make efforts to create a cooperative rapport with them. In the international society, NDL will enhance its cooperation with IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) and CDNL (Conference of Directors of National Libraries), and keep pace with international standardization. We are firmly determined to make our Electronic Library Concept come true.

(1) NDL differentiates two categories of electronic publications: physical format (the Library calls it 'Packaged' and remotely accessible('Networked'). The former is electronic information fixed on physical media; the latter is what is transmitted via telecommunications such as the Internet, personal computer communications and satellite communications.(Back to the text)

(2) NDL compiles Japan/MARC, a machine readable version of Japanese National Bibliography. Its national bibliographic services include not only those for paper media but also for magnetic tape, CD-ROM and other machine readable forms.(Back to the text)

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