1. What is the Detached Library in the Diet? - thinking under the tower of the Diet building
A little while ago, I listened on TV to a 63-year-old speech delivered in the Diet by Takao Saito, a member of the Imperial Diet at the time.  While the speech made me think anew about the Diet as a citadel of discourse, it stimulated my imagination on where and how he drafted the speech, which was reportedly thoroughly rehearsed on the seashore.  If he elaborated it day and night, arranging and improving his verbs and objects, he must have done it somewhere in the Diet as well as in his home office. 

The Diet building was completed in 1936.  On the fourth floor, there were the libraries of the House of Peers and the House of Representatives.  On the second and third floor, there were reading rooms. The speech was delivered in 1940, so maybe Saito read documents, consulted dictionaries, and dry-wrote the speech in those rooms.  The Detached Library in the Diet (DLID) is their successor and still exists on the fourth floor of the Diet building. 

When the National Diet Library (NDL) was established in 1948, the DLID inherited the collections and facilities of the libraries of the two Houses.  After the NDL Main building was completed in 1968, most of the DLID collections were transferred to it. Small as it is, the DLID aims to be an active front-line library in the Diet and has been providing the Diet members, their secretaries, the Secretariats and others with services focusing on offering materials such as parliamentary proceedings, new books, new journals and newspapers. 

In the past several years, the DLID refurbished its facilities, developed systems and constructed an information and telecommunication infrastructure with the cooperation of the Secretariats of both Houses.  New services have been launched from last autumn to this June. 

Taking this opportunity, I would like to introduce the services of the DLID, some user opinions and future challenges. 

2. New services and user guidance 
(a) Loan service using a library card
The DLID information system operation and library card issuance made the procedures of lending/returning materials easier and quicker. The system is almost the same as those of public libraries: users can check the location of each issue of periodicals as well as books, and reserve them easily.  About 17,000 books acquired since 1998 and about 400 journal titles out of the whole collection are now bar-coded and registered in the system.  The DLID keeps books for a decade.  As for journals, some titles are kept for a short period (from three to five years) and others are kept longer.  We continue adding retrospective data, subject to availability.  Happily, the library card got a favorable reception and 437 cards have been issued as of July 1, 2003. 

(b) Search service (The DLID-OPAC)
Keyword cross search between 17,000 books, 600 titles of periodicals and 15,000 items of newspaper clippings out of the whole DLID collection is available.  Newspaper clippings from the six major Japanese papers comprise running stories (excluding novels, etc.), editorials, and articles on approval rating for the Cabinet.  The cross search is now available only in the DLID but we intend to make it available in the Members' Office Buildings and the Secretariat offices of both Houses through the Diet WAN. 

(c) Information service via the DLID website
The DLID provides an intranet website "Chosa-no-Mado" (access to research services) for the Diet in collaboration with the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau.  The DLID page in "Chosa-no-Mado" introduces newly acquired books of the week, catalogs of journals, newspapers and newspaper clippings in addition to news and a user guide. 

(d) Self-service copying and electronic resource corner 
Self-service copying started in October 2002.  Diet members' secretaries and the Diet staff can make free-of-charge copies of materials within the limits of copyright by themselves, up to 20 sheets per item. 
The electronic resource corner has computer terminals for CD-ROMs and desks for carry-on PC users.  We plan to expand CD-ROM titles to be offered in the future. 

(e) Advantages
The nearest loan library 
The DLID is located in the center of the Diet building on the fourth floor.  Eight and a half minute walk is enough to get there from the farthest point on the premises.  Members and the staff can stop by and check out books or make copies during their busy day. 

Library like a convenience store 
The DLID collects materials in order to support parliamentary businesses including Diet members' research and Diet employees' business.  It has parliamentary proceedings, statutory documents, reference and other books, journals, newspapers and small communication magazines centering on the latest materials.  It occupies a middle position between a special library on politics, law and social science and a municipal library.  It is a kind of small one-stop library dealing with everything.  If you do not find what you are looking for, you can search the catalogs of the Tokyo Main Library, the Kansai-kan and the International Library of Children's Literature on the NDL-OPAC. 

Distinctive features of the newspaper collection
National papers, political parties' papers, business papers, sports papers and reduced editions are available.  In particular, sixty local papers are displayed first thing in the morning.  We are considering a combined service provision of newspaper information both in paper and electronic form, online search for local papers and offering copies of searched materials. 

3. From interviews with Diet people
"Diet people" simply means people who can enter the Diet building regularly.  I have heard that fourteen or fifteen thousand people in over thirty kinds of professions work here.   I interviewed some of them and here is the interviews. 

First of all, we have to make the DLID known to the Diet people.  We usually hold briefing sessions for the Diet members and their secretaries but I would like to expand the audience to different types of workers and new employees.  Efforts to increase access to the DLID website are needed, too. 

At the same time, collection development to meet people's needs is essential.   As their needs vary from one profession to another, I think we have to review the structure and the development policy of the collection in order to find the way.  I would also like to accept their requests on a trial basis. 

When I visited the library of the Legislative Bureau of the House of Representatives, I came up with an idea of setting up a meeting of librarians in various departments in the Diet.  Having a place where we can exchange opinions and cooperate with each other would be useful. 

The huge advantage of the DLID is that Diet people and we share the common goal of maximizing the Diet activities for all the people.  I think our library management take up dialogue and partnership with Diet people.  For example, how about creating a new medium to carry their essays and information on reading and knowledge? 

Once I visited a small public library in a village in Wakayama prefecture. What impressed me there was that its services were based on dialogue with the village people including officers and assembly members.  They were making constant efforts and coming up with new ideas.  I believe that the scale of a library is not important for being a living library.  I intend to work to make the DLID a living library with the motto "Even a small library can achieve big ambitions."