No. 133, October 2003

The 7th Mutual Visit Program between
the National Diet Library and
the National Library of Korea

Session II: (Subject: Digital Library Construction)

Objectives of NDL's Electronic Library Services

by Mr. Kenji Uetsuki
Director, Digital Information Planning Office
National Diet Library

1. Seeking the electronic library
In the early 1990s, under promotion of a national information policy in Japan, the NDL started the "Pilot Electronic Library Project" in cooperation with the Information-Technology Promotion Agency (IPA). Since 1995, it has participated in the G7 electronic library project (now "Bibliotheca Universalis"). Based on these experiences, the NDL verified the feasibility of an electronic library, decided that the promotion of the electronic library project was one of its future tasks, and conducted the project in step with the opening of the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library. In 1998, after examination of the feasibility and problems of the electronic library, the National Diet Library Electronic Library Concept was formulated.

NDL Electronic Library Projects

2. Goal and achievements of the electronic library
The ultimate goal of the electronic library project is to establish a system to control and organize information resources nationwide. Without control, these resources might be dumps of useless data. However, at first, provided data were insufficient, and systematic and technical problems meant that the scope of database service was limited to public libraries. The NDL had been recognized as the "last resort" of information resources, but it decided to be not only the "last resort" but also to be the "first resort" expanding provision of information and channels to reach its holdings through the electronic library.

Last year, the NDL expanded the scope of the NDL-OPAC, started to provide the Digital Library from the Meiji Era (image database of books published in the Meiji era), the Dnavi (Database Navigation Service: experimental project) and the WARP (Web Archiving Project: experimental project) online. For details, please see here.

For construction of the Digital Library from the Meiji Era, the NDL conducted open copyright investigation on its website because the copyright status of 60% of the books published in the Meiji era had not been ascertained. After open investigation, it will apply for a compulsory license to be issued by the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs based on the Copyright Law, to digitize and provide the works online whose copyright holder remains unknown, and pay stipulated compensation. A large proportion of books published in the Meiji era will be available online in FY2005.

It became a common recognition that information on the Internet should be acquired, preserved, and provided to the public. But this involves systematic, technical and economic problems. The Legal Deposit System Council of the NDL is deliberating on the propriety of including online electronic publications in the Legal Deposit System, and other related issues. To contribute to the deliberation and confirm the feasibility from technical aspects, the NDL is conducting the experimental projects mentioned above and making them available to the public.

As the results of the experimental projects, the NDL found the following problems:

• Technical problems are involved in acquiring web resources.
• It requires a vast amount of processes to acquire web resources on a contract base.
• Web resources involve multiple rights and it is difficult to solve copyright issues with each party to the contract

3. Future direction of the NDL electronic library

<Near-future plans and challenges>
All the electronic library projects opened to the public in 2002 are still being developed. The NDL's near-future plans are as follows:

• Copyright clearance of books published in the Meiji era and expansion of the Digital Library from the Meiji Era
• Expansion of digitized materials after the Meiji era
• Continuing experimental project to preserve online electronic publications including improvement of web robots, efficient acquisition of online resources, study of persistent identifier, etc.
• Enhancement of electronic exhibitions
• System development for the Digital Library from the Meiji Era, the Dnavi and the WARP

As research and development projects, development of the Collaborative Reference Database System and research for preservation of digital information are being conducted.

<Medium- and long-term plans>
In addition to expansion of digitized materials, there are two goals of the NDL electronic library.

1. Archiving and provision of resources on the Internet
As an international effort, national libraries are trying to form a web-archiving consortium that aims to acquire, preserve and provide resources on the Internet.

2. Position of the NDL among information resources and resource sharing
Information navigation is an important role of the electronic library. To make it more convenient for the public to access information resources, the NDL is required to function as a huge national database provider. It is necessary to provide an easy-to-use interface for every user to access necessary information.