No. 121, September 2001

Cooperative use of library resources:
Union Catalog of the National Diet Library

by Fumiko Kodama
Chief, Domestic Cooperation Division

I was in charge of the National Union Catalog Network Project from April 1998 to March 2001. I will report on the union catalog projects in the National Diet Library (NDL), focusing on the Union Catalog Network.

1. Union catalogs in the NDL

The National Diet Library Law article 21 section 4 prescribes: To take measures toward the establishment of a union catalogue of the library resources of Japan and of such other catalogues and lists as may be necessary to effect coordinated usefulness of the library resources of the country. Producing and providing the union catalog has been one of missions of the NDL since the establishment of the Library. We continued to publish union catalogs in book form: the Zen-Nihon Shuppanbutsu So-mokuroku (Japanese National Bibliography) from 1948 to 1976, which includes publications that the NDL does not have, and the Shinshu Yosho Sogo Mokuroku(Union Catalog of Foreign Books) from 1954 to 1987, that is a union catalog of foreign books in the collections of the major libraries in Japan. But we ceased to publish the Shinshu Yosho Sogo Mokuroku at volume 14 (1984 ・1987, published in 1990) because the member libraries discontinued the card catalog and changed it into an online catalog, and the NDL also did not have sufficient personnel or budget. The NACSIS-CAT of the National Center for Science Information Systems (now the National Institute of Informatics) serves as a union catalog of foreign books of academic libraries. We also ceased to publish the Zen-Nihon Shuppanbutsu So-mokuroku in 1976. To cover its loss, we have expanded the Nihon Zenkoku Shoshi (Japanese National Bibliography).

Here are two examples of recent union catalogs:

(1) NDL CD-ROM Line: National Union Catalog of Braille & Recorded Books (revised twice a year) 
This is a union catalog of braille and recorded books cataloged by libraries for blind and public libraries. We publish it in CD-ROM form. The book form published from 1982 and ceased in 1998 at No. 34.

(2) Union Catalog of Periodicals and Newspapers on South Asia (published in June 1996)
This is a union catalog of periodicals and newspapers of South Asia owned by the NDL, the Institute of Developing Economies, The Toyo Bunko (Oriental Library), The Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

2. From book form to network

The union catalog used to be in book form or card catalog. The value of the union catalog was keenly recognized but it was a time consuming task and forced to cease publication. On the other hand, library automation, bibliographic database, library networking and library cooperation have been strengthened under the progress of information technology. The National Diet Library has also been planning to provide union catalogs on the network taking advantage of the opening of the Kansai-kan and the International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL). The union catalogs below are not in book form but on the network open to the public through discussion and experiments.

National Union Catalog Network Project
This is a union catalog of public libraries. I will introduce its details lates.

International Library of Children's Literature Union Catalog of Children's Books 
This was built as a service infrastructure of the ILCL. This union catalog consists of bibliographic data of 190,000 books and 5,000 periodicals of the NDL, the ILCL, the International Institute of Children痴 Literature, Osaka, Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature and the Children痴 Room of the Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Library. The database is available on our web site (<http://www.kodomo.go.jp/function/somoku.html>, Japanese only). We plan to add book reviews and information about prizewinners to expand this union catalog as a special bibliography.

Union Catalog of Newspapers in Japan Database
This is based on the Union List of Reduced, Microfilmed and Reprinted Newspapers in Japan, which was published every five years in book form. The database also includes bibliographic data and holdings of original newspapers; there are about 17,500 data of 1,300 institutes such as public libraries, academic libraries, special information institutes, and newspaper and broadcasting companies. The database, as a national union catalog of newspapers, will serve as basic data for cooperative preservation and media conversion projects of newspapers. Now the database is under evaluation and will be available on the internet in the near future.

All of these databases are constructed as an integrated database of the member libraries. It is the NDL that maintains the database and provides it through the network. The National Union Catalog of Braille & Recorded Books in Japan, previously published in book form and CD-ROM, has already become a database and been provided to the prefectural and major municipal libraries and several libraries for the blind through an online system called the National Diet Library Online Information Retrieval Network System (NOREN). We plan to provide it on the internet by 2002.

3.  National Union Catalog Network Project

History:
1993 ・1994  Experiment as the National Union Catalog Pilot Project 
1994 ・1997  Cooperative experiment as the Pilot Electronic Library Project with the Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA) 
1998.4 ・nbsp;  Operating as a project of the NDL

Now 68 of 71 prefectural and major municipal libraries are participating and 35 libraries provide bibliographic data. In FY2001, 443 city, ward, town and village libraries will participate in this network.

The objects of this project are to strengthen library resource sharing within the public library, to promote standardization and utilization of the bibliographic service in the public library and to support interlibrary loan among  public libraries throughout the country. The database provides the interlibrary loan-related information of each library so that users can take simple steps to borrow from another library, from searching the bibliography to requesting the loan by e-mail, all on one system. The interlibrary loan supporting function is a major characteristic of this union catalog database.

To construct the system, we tried to reduce the trouble to the member libraries and the system requires little manual work. According to the National Union Catalog format, the extensive format of the JAPAN/MARC, each library selects and sends data automatically. The system in the NDL also automatically identifies and integrates the bibliographic data.

This database is the first national union catalog database of public libraries. There is NACSIS ・CAT, union catalog by the National Center for Science Information Systems, now the National Institute of Informatics, but most of the member libraries are academic libraries and few public libraries are participating.

As a result of the National Union Catalog Network Project, interlibrary loan among public libraries has been promoted all over the country. Some libraries reported that the number of interlibrary loans from/to outside the prefecture increased four times. To keep up with this change, the National Council of Public Libraries made "A Guide for Interlibrary Loan of Public Libraries" in 1999. With the expansion of interlibrary loan, the role of the NDL as the support library has been realized and the notion that each library has every different function is created.

A tendency to make a union catalog for a local area is appearing. The increase of library cooperation and interlibrary loan beyond prefectural borders is caused by the change of the times; no single library can any longer fulfill the various high level demands of library users. 
The National Union Catalog Network Project is a significant project that made it possible to build a system to fulfill these demands.

4. Union catalog in future and function of the NDL

Each union catalog is coming to be regarded as a useful tool to strengthen library services. For example, the National Union Catalog Network Project works as a tool of interlibrary loan and reference work and becomes a basis of library cooperation; the Union Catalog of Children's Books is a basis of cooperation and research among the related institutes; the Union Catalog of Newspapers in Japan Database is a basis of the newspaper microfilming cooperative project.

The first object of making and providing a union catalog is to provide the library resources of Japan, as the NDL Law prescribes. But the function as a basis to support library services with a library network seems to be getting more and more important.

After the opening of the Kansai-kan, we will expand the National Union Catalog Network Project and the National Union Catalog of Braille & Recorded Books in the Kansai-kan as a basis of library cooperation services.