No. 135, February 2004

The 23rd Mutual Visit Program between
the National Diet Library and
the National Library of China

A National Diet Library (NDL) delegation visited China from November 24 to December 3, 2003 on the 23rd mutual visit program between the NDL and the National Library of China (NLC).

For reports on past programs, please see here.

For outline of the programs and some reports presented at the programs, please see here.

Headed by Ms. Kimiko Harada, Director General of the Bibliography Department, the delegation consisted of the following four other members: Mr. Keiya Utsumi, Department Director of the Projects Department, Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, Mr. Yuji Miya, Director of the Book Service Division, Ms. Fumiko Kodama, Director of the Library Support Division, Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, and Ms. Kaori Murakami, Chief of the Cooperation Section, Planning and Cooperation Division (interpreter).

NDL delegation in front of the NLC building
From left: Ms. Murakami, Ms. Harada, Ms. Kodama, Mr. Miya, Mr. Utsumi

The main theme of the program was "Enhancement of the Functions of National Libraries" and the sub-themes were "Online Information Resources: Acquisition, Organization and Use" and "New Development of Library Cooperation."

In the latter part of the program, they went to cities in southern China (Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai) to visit libraries there.

Opening Session (Theme: Enhancement of the Functions of National Libraries)

At the Opening Session, Ms. Zhang Yafang, Deputy Librarian of the NLC, delivered a keynote speech focusing on NLC's library services:

1. Specialized services for the government, the NPC and the CPPCC, academicians and other specialists, academic institutions and companies.

The NLC provides 24-hour-a-day reference service for the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. NLC branch libraries located in the government agencies were established, modeled on the NDL branch library system.

2. Cooperative services for libraries nationwide

Since 1991, the NLC has been holding a meeting with directors of major public libraries in China. Through its union catalog project, joint purchase of foreign databases, and ILL system linking domestic libraries, the NLC plays a leading role in Chinese libraries.

3. Participation in national projects

The NLC is the Center for the Consortium of National Information Resource Sharing. This national project is operated by the Ministry of Culture to which the NLC is affiliated and the Ministry of Finance. For details of the project, please see here. In addition, the NLC is in charge of operating two national projects, the China Rare Books Reproduction Project and the Send Books to Villages Project.

4. Cultural events (lectures and exhibitions)

The NLC puts emphasis on the library's function as a social educational facility. It holds cultural lectures for senior staff of the central government. It has held lectures for general public 400 times in the past two years and the audience reached 70,000. Exhibitions of NLC collections to introduce Chinese culture were held not only in China but also in foreign countries such as Hungary.

5. Change in NLC policy--from storing materials to providing materials for use

The NLC changed its policy and sharpened its focus on the use of its holdings. As a result of this reformation, the numbers of on-site users and used materials tripled compared with 1998.
Ms. Harada reported on recent developments in the NDL, focusing on the new services provided after the reorganization of the NDL in 2002.

• Opening of two more facilities, the Kansai-kan and the International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL), expanded on-site services.
• Opening of the ILCL that serves not only adults but also children, while the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan serves only adults, made the age limit relaxed. 
• Digital library service made it possible to serve more users than ever beyond the limits of time and space.

As future challenges of the NDL, Ms. Harada stated the following:

• The NDL will find solutions to deal with online information resources
• The NDL will continue to improve users' access to information resources
• The NDL will promote both domestic and international library cooperation activities

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Session on the Online Information Resources: Acquisition, Organization and Use

Mr. Wang Zhigeng, Deputy Director of Serials Department/ISSN China Center, introduced recent projects of the NLC in this field.

New library system:
The NLC adopted a new library management system, Aleph 500, in November 2002. As a result of this adoption, the NLC reorganized its divisions.

Web Information Collection and Preservation (WICP): 
The WICP is a test project to collect government, academic and public resources on the web. Collected materials are cataloged utilizing the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set or the China MARC and their bibliographic data are included in the NLC-OPAC.

Online Database Navigation (ODBN): 
The ODBN is also a test project to collect databases on the deep web.

The WICP and the ODBN are provided only on the NLC intranet so far.

International Dunhuang Project:
This is a joint project conducted by national libraries such as the NLC, the British Library (BL), Bibliotheque nationale de France, and Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. The NLC and the BL maintain its website. They will complete digitization of their Dunhuang materials by 2006 and provide them on the Internet free of charge.

From the NDL, Mr. Keiya Utsumi reported on online information resources. He introduced two projects related to online information resources, the Web Archiving Project (WARP) and the Database Navigation Service (Dnavi). The issue whether online information resources should be included in the legal deposit system or not is now being discussed by the Legal Deposit System Council, one of advisory organizations of the Librarian of the NDL. The final report will be submitted by March 2005. The Japanese Government is also promoting e-Japan strategy and the NDL is expected to participate in its plan to establish cultural heritage archives and a portal site of the government's databases.

Session on the New Development of Library Cooperation

Mr. Yan Xiangdong, Director of the International Cooperation Division, NLC, reported mainly on international library cooperation. 

• Cooperative establishment and use of Chinese resources over the world
• Enhancement of staff exchange and cooperation with other national libraries
• Utilization of international exchange program for senior staff training
• Export of Chinese traditional preservation techniques to other countries
• Promotion of Chinese culture through exhibitions of the NLC holdings
• Holding/participating in international conferences 

Ms. Fumiko Kodama, Director of the Library Support Division, Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, reported mainly on domestic cooperation activities. After the establishment of the Kansai-kan and the ILCL, the NDL changed its framework and library cooperation activities are operated in all three facilities. She introduced this new framework and new services such as the Collaborative Reference Database System and the Current Awareness-E, an e-mail magazine that introduces the latest news on library and library science from inside and outside Japan.

Visits to other libraries

In addition to the sessions, the NDL delegation visited other libraries. In Beijing, they visited the Branch Library of the NLC at Wenjin Street, the Peking University Library, and the Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

In southern China, they visited the Zhejiang Library, the Jiaye Library, the Suzhou Library and the Shanghai Library. The Jiaye Library, a branch of the Zhejiang Library, is an old traditional library originally established by a Chinese book collector and publisher, Liu Chenggan (1882-1963), while the other libraries are examples of newly developed libraries in China. 

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