National Diet Library Newsletter

(3)  Provision of bibliographic information
The NDL compiles and publishes the Japanese National Bibliography. In FY 2002, we shortened the processing time and started providing the Japanese National Bibliography Weekly List (Japanese only) online.

<Table2> Number of Bibliographic data added in FY2002

Japanese books	114,024
Books in Western languages	47,110
Japanese serials	3,600
Serials in Western Languages	816
Articles from Japanese periodicals	393,928

We also developed a new online catalog system called NDL-OPAC, which enables cross search through books, serials, and articles of Japanese periodicals.

<Table3> NDL-OPAC coverage

Japanese books	2,718,831
Books in Western languages	318,636
Serials (Japanese/ Western languages)	168,653
Electronic resources	9,862
Rare books and old materials	5,552
Doctoral dissertations (Japanese/ Overseas)	287, 895
Japanese periodicals index	5,688,601
Standards / technical reports	99,305
Braille resources/ recorded books	272,182

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II. Services for the National Diet

The NDL provides legislative research services and library services for the National Diet members and other Diet-related people.

(1) Legislative research service

Research and Legislative Reference Bureau of the NDL conducts researches on politics, economy, and social affairs inside and outside of Japan using NDL collections. Total number of researches conducted by the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau in FY2002 was 30,350 (1,980 increase from the previous year). The figure has grown for two consecutive years. Among them, research conducted for the Diet members and Diet-related people are shown in <Table 4>.

<Table4> Legislative research conducted for the Diet members and other Diet-related people 

Client			Members of the House of Representatives	Members of the House of Councillors	Ex-Diet members	Secretariat	Political parties	Total
Number of cases			16,759	10,231	917	527	1,244	29,678
Category	Analysis		38	11	0	1	0	50
	Research		13,630	8,181	499	498	1,121	23,929
	Document supply		3,090	2,039	418	28	123	5,698
	Bill drafting		1	0	0	0	0	1
Subject	Area	Japan	12,250	7,233	710	97	691	20,981
		Overseas	3,122	2,089	147	402	433	6,193
		Japan& Overseas	1,196	808	53	27	94	2,178
	Others		191	101	7	1	26	326
Means of response	Oral	Telephone	496	334	12	60	46	948
		Meeting	251	126	39	14	12	442
		Attend at a session	31	19	0	5	7	62
	Materials	Lending out/Copying	14,432	8,901	800	259	1,009	25,401
	Written	Research paper	1,404	777	62	184	152	2,579
		Book list	111	53	4	3	12	183
		Translation	34	21	0	2	6	63

Electronic information service for the National Diet * "Chosa-no-Mado," the NDL website specially prepared as a portal of services for the National Diet, was renewed in March 2003. Diet members can now send requests for research via Internet.  **Access to the Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet (Japanese only), which covers proceedings from the first National Diet session in 1947, counts to 400,076 (59,760 increase from the previous year), including 95,212 (14,862 increase from the previous year) via the National Diet WAN.

(2) Library service
Detached Library in the Diet (DLID)(related article) is a small but front-line library of the services to the National Diet which locates on the fourth floor of the Diet building. 64,000 books including parliamentary proceedings and U.S. codes, and about 600 titles of serials are available there. <Table 5> shows the library service provided at the DLID.

<Table5> DLID Library services

	Visitors	Circulation		Copying	Reference
		(persons)	(volumes)
Diet members	1,689	1,733	3,901	7,609	4,316
Diet-related people	43,865	6,165	13,041	588	1,286
Total	45,554	7,898	16,942	8,197	5,602

III. Services for the general public

Services for the general public consists of services for remote users and on-site services. To provide more convenient services, the NDL introduced user registration system in October 2002.
(1) Services for remote users
The newly-built Kansai-kan receives requests for ILL service and copying service by mail. Requests for remote reference service are received at the Tokyo Main Library, and referred to the appropriate divisions.

1. Interlibrary loan

<Chart 3> Materials lent out in FY2002

2. Reference services

Remote reference services are available by phone, letter, fax, or e-mail. In FY2002, 8,787 written (letter, fax, or e-mail) requests are received. 86.8% (7,626) of written requests were from libraries and 5.7% from individual users. The number of reference requests received by phone was 50,904, 93,3% (47,471) of which were from individual users. 

3. Copying service by mail

We received 40,617 requests for copying service (106,835 articles) by mail in FY2002 (30,156 requests, 89,131 articles in the previous year). In FY 2002, we started receiving requests via NDL-OPAC (Japanese only).

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(2) On-site services
On-site services include reader service, copying service, and in-person reference service.

<Basic Data>
Tokyo Main Library

Opening days per year	239
Visitors	361, 695  (1,513 per day)
Circulation	1,294,612
Inter-site circulation  (materials sent from Kansai-kan)	1,521

Kansai-kan (opened in October 2002)

Opening days per year	129
Visitors	61,480  (477 per day)
Circulation	43,265
Inter-site circulation  (materials sent from Tokyo Main Library)	737

Kansai-kan (opened in October 2002)

Opening days per year	129
Visitors	61,480  (477 per day)
Circulation	43,265
Inter-site circulation  (materials sent from Tokyo Main Library)	737

*We provide electronic journals both in the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan. In March 2003, 1,400 titles were available (it grew to more than four times as of October 2003).

 <Services in Special Materials Rooms>
Special Materials Rooms were reorganized in FY2002 (related article). Statistics are shown in <Table6>.

<Table6> Special Materials Room statistics

	Opening days	Users	Users/day (average)	Circulation	Circulation/day
Reference Books Room(~2002.6.19)	52	41,034	789	-	-
Humanities Room (2002.6.20~)	185	103,181	558	131	1
Newspaper Reading Room	239	78,927	330	197,353	826
Science and Technology Materials Room(~2002.6.19)	47	5,770	123	1,542	33
Business, Science and Technology Room(2002.6.20~)	185	45,224	244	577	3
Statutes and Parliamentary Documents Room	239	11,414	48	16,212	68
Law, Politics and Official Publications Room	239	25,450	106	2,738	11
Map Room	239	38,231	160	34,898	146
Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room	239	4,163	17	65,005	272
Rare Books and Old Materials Room	239	4,336	18	33,977	142
Audiovisual Materials Room	229	6,062	26	6,544	29
Electronic Resources Room	229	12,798	58	3,649	16
Asian Resources Room (2002.10.7~)	129	-	-	915	7

<Chart5> shows types of references of the three libraries of the NDL.
In both the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan, requests for user guide is very high, whereas it remains at 41.9% at the ILCL. About a half of them are requests for assistance in search.

(3) Services of the International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL)
The ILCL, a branch library of the NDL providing library services for children's literature and related materials, fully opened in May 2002 (related article). <Table 7> shows FY2002 statistics of the ILCL:

<Table7> ILCL Statistics (fully opened in May 2002)

	FY2002	FY2001
Opening days	265	245
Visitors	143,632 (542 per day)	50,805 (207 per day)
Circulation	29,264	-
ILL requests	283	-
In-person reference service	7,173	2,051
Reference service by letter	379	91
Reference service by phone	858	602
Requests for on-site copying service	2,907	-
Requests for copying service by mail	1,122	-
Visitors to the exhibitions	111,855	-