A National Library of China (NLC) delegation visited Japan from November 18 to 27 on the 22nd mutual visit program between the NDL and NLC. The program started in 1981 to exchange opinions on issues of mutual concern and to further strengthen mutual understanding and friendly relations. 

Headed by the Deputy Director Dr. Chen Li, this year's delegation had the following other members: Ms. Sun Liping, Director of the International Cooperation Division, Mr. Zhang Zhiqing, Director of the Rare Book Department, Ms. Liu Kangning, Assistant Director of the Operational Division, and Ms. Li Cuiwei (interpreter), staff member of the Center for the Consortium of National Information Resource Sharing. 

Delegation of the NLC (from left):

Mr. Chen Li (Deputy Director)
Ms.Li Cuiwei (staff member, Center for the Consortium of National Information Resource Sharing; interpreter)
Ms. Sun Lipin (Director, International Cooperation Division)
Ms. Liu Kangning (Assistant Director, Operational Division)
Mr. Zhang Zhiqing (Director, Rare Book Department)
 

This year's program consisted mainly of a series of seminars held at the Tokyo Main Library and visits to the Kansai-kan and other related institutions. 

The seminar was composed of three sessions: the opening session for keynote speeches, the second on the subject "Development of Digital Library Services" and the third for conclusions.
 

Opening Session

At the opening session, Dr. Chen delivered a keynote speech under the title "Current status and future plans of library services of the National Library of China," followed by a speech by Mr. Tsuyoshi Ujigo, Deputy Librarian of the NDL, titled "Development of new services at the National Diet Library." 

In his speech, Dr. Chen first introduced various kinds of services that the NLC currently provides, classifying them into the following four groups according to the types of clients: 1) Legislative support services and policymaking support services for the Chinese government agencies, 2) Business support services for academic institutions and companies, 3) Services to support lifelong learning for the public, and 4) Cooperative services for libraries nationwide. Then he touched on the provision of digital resources, on which the NLC places a high priority. 

In the latter half on his speech, Dr. Chen talked about the NLC's plans and challenges for the future. First, he emphasized that the major functions and purposes of the NLC were what they called "one repository and three centers", that is, a national repository of the domestic publications, a national bibliographic center, a national center of library information networks, and a library research and development center. On that basis, the NLC is planning to 1) improve its document supply services, 2) lead other libraries in establishing library-related standards and codes, 3) develop an online union catalog, and 4) establish the China Digital Library. 

Mr. Ujigo's keynote speech was focused on the basic stance that the NDL should take in considering its future. Based on the ideals and major purposes stipulated in the National Diet Library Law, he said, the NDL should place a high priority on the following three points: 1) Provision of user-oriented services, 2) Making full use of web resources, and 3) Strengthening partnership with other institutions. 

Mr. Ujigo (2nd from right) and Librarian Kurosawa (3rd from right) 
 

Next, Mr. Ujigo introduced two key phrases in regard to the current services of the NDL: "From world to world," which expresses the globalization of the information resources that the NDL and libraries in general collect and provide, and "From past to future", which means the NDL's major challenge to preserve its collections for future generations. He also emphasized the importance of human resource development to support those works. 

He concluded his speech by expressing his hope to strengthen the relationship between the NLC and the NDL. 

In the question period following the keynote speeches, participants exchanged information and opinions on issues such as acquisition of local publications in China, business support services of the NLC, remote user services of the NLC, reorganization of the NDL, digitization projects in the NDL. 

At the session, Ms. Liu Kangning from the NLC and Ms. Machiko Nakai, Director of the Digital Information Planning Office, NDL, reported on recent developments in this area. 

Ms. Liu's report consisted of two parts, first on the provision of digital resources, mainly CD-ROMs, in the NLC, and the second, which Mr. Zhang Zhiqing prepared for Ms. Liu, on the creation of bibliographic databases and digitization of the library collections. 

In the first part, Ms. Liu outlined the provision of digital resources at the NLC that started in 1987 with the purchase of a CD-ROM database. Currently, the NLC has 70 CD-ROM databases, 10,000 titles of e-journals, and 6,886 titles of CD-ROMs. The purchase of digital resources takes up 5% of the acquisition budget of the Library. Those resources are made available to users in the electronic reading rooms that opened in 1995. The NLC plans to improve the following four points concerning the provision of digital resources: 1) Digital collection development, 2) Rate of utilization, 3) User support, and 4) Skill of the staff. 

In the second part, Ms. Liu first mentioned bibliographic databases of the NLC, such as catalog database (2.5 million records), contents information database (700,000 records), authority record database (500,000 records) and full-text image database of Chinese books (63.7 million pages). Then she introduced the major digitization projects of the Library. The NLC has launched and has been developing the following nine projects to digitize various kinds of materials from its vast collections and provide them to the users. 1) Image database of oracle bones, 2) Image database of rubbings of stone carvings held in Chinese libraries, 3) International Dunhuang Project in cooperation with the British Library, 4) Database of Xixia documents and Xixia study materials, 5) Databases of digital Chinese local chronicles of the Qing Dynasty, 6) Union catalog of rare books in China, 7) Database of Chinese doctoral dissertations, 8) Digitization of microfilms of Chinese periodicals published in the Republic era, and 9) Digitization of audio-visual materials. 

After Ms. Liu's report, the NDL participants asked questions on the relation between CD-ROMs and web resources, staff training, network security, and other issues. 

Ms. Nakai started her report by outlining the history of digital library development at the NDL, and then moved on to the current status of digital library projects. With the reorganization of the whole library and the opening of the Kansai-kan, an organizational structure to advance digital library projects has been established, with the Digital Information Planning Office in the Tokyo Main Library and the Digital Library Division in the Kansai-kan. In 2002, the NDL opened several new databases and digital contents on the Internet, such as "Digital Library from the Meiji Era," "Web Archiving Project (WARP)," "Database Navigation Service (Dnavi)," and " The Japanese Calendar." It also started remote user services via the NDL-OPAC. In conclusion, Ms. Nakai cited several challenges the NDL faces: for example, the need for the Digital Information Planning Office to draw up a new digital library plan, for the Digital Library Division to develop a new test project "Cooperative Reference Database System," and for the whole library to develop necessary human resources and improve the management skills of the staff. 

Following Ms. Nakai's report, Mr. Shun'ichi Tomihisa, Director of the Electronic Resources Division, briefly explained the provision of digital resources in the NDL facilities. Then, Ms. Nakai and other NDL participants answered several questions from the NLC delegates about the method of collecting online resources, the scope of collection development, copyright issues concerning the online publications, and so on. 
 
 

Visits to the Kansai-kan and other institutions

On November 25 and 26, the NLC delegation visited the Kansai-kan that just opened in the previous month. After the library tour, they met the staff members of the Digital Library Division, Asian Resources Division, and others, heard about their work, and exchanged opinions and information. 

The delegation also visited other libraries and related institutions such as the International Library of Children's Literature, Toyo Bunko (Oriental Library), Seikado Bunko, University of Tokyo Library, and Osaka Prefectural Central Library. 
 

Conclusion

During the program, representatives of both libraries reviewed the Letter of Intent concerning Exchange and Cooperation between the National Diet Library and the National Library of China, which was exchanged in 1999, and agreed on continuing their cooperative relations and making developments on several aspects such as document delivery services and personnel exchange.

We believe that this year's mutual visit concluded successfully and results in deeper understanding and stronger ties between the National Library of China and the National Diet Library.