NDL Statistics FY2004

This is an abridged translation of the series articles "Excerpts from the Annual Report of the NDL, FY2004: statistics" in the NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 534 and 535 (September - October 2005).

The NDL compiles and publishes an Annual Report each year with the major achievements and statistics of the previous fiscal year. This Annual Report is submitted to the Diet and also distributed to major libraries and related institutions in Japan. It has been available also on the NDL website since FY2002 (Japanese only). The following are statistics abstracted from the Annual Report FY2004 (April 2004 - March 2005). 
 

I. Collection development and provision of bibliographic information

1. Collections

The NDL collects various materials published inside and outside Japan.

<Table 1> Materials held by the NDL

2. Acquisition

<Chart1> Ratio of each acquisition method

Click for a larger image.

3. Collection of the digital library

4. Provision of bibliographic information

II. Services for the National Diet

1. Legislative research service

Improvement in legislative research service

• In addition to the delivery of library materials and copies to the Diet Members' Office Building, Diet members can now request NDL staff to come to the Members' Office Building and pick up the materials loaned out.
• "Chosa-no-mado," the NDL website specially prepared as a portal of services for the National Diet which had been available only via the National Diet WAN, was made accessible through the Internet from April 2004 so that the Diet Members use it from their local office or other places outside the Diet Building.
• Special Research Room for publicly employed secretaries to Diet members was opened in the Tokyo Main Building in October 2004.
• Service time of the Reading Room and Research Rooms for the Diet Members was extended by two hours, which means they are open until 7:00 p.m. (During the Diet session they are open until 8:00 p.m.)

2. Library service

III. Services for the executive and judicial agencies

IV. Services for the general public

Services for the general public are offered in the Tokyo Main Library, Kansai-kan, International Library of Children's Literature and Toyo Bunko. These facilities offer services for both remote and on-site users. 

In October 2005, the Tokyo Main Library started to increase library opening days from five days to six days a week, and extended its service time by two hours on weekdays (43% increase in service hour per year).At the same time we increased the number of books a visitor can request at one time and the upper limit of the time user can request copying was abolished. These has greatly changed the condition of user services, and as the Tokyo Main Library closed for a while in preparation for it, the number of visitors cannot be directly compared with the number of previous years.

1. Services for remote users

a. Interlibrary loan

The NDL lent out 14,670 materials to 3,289 institutions and libraries including 122 new member institutions and libraries in FY2004.

They can make a request via NDL-OPAC in addition to postal mail, fax and through the NDL-ILL system. The number of requests via NDL-OPAC was 8,564 (56 % of all the requests) in FY2004 while 7,611 (51 %) in FY2003.
 

<Chart 2> Number of materials lent out in FY2004

b. Reference services

Remote reference services are available by phone, letter, fax, or e-mail. In FY2004, there were 9,095 written (letter, fax, or e-mail) requests, 1,116 more than the previous year. 78.4% (7,133) of written requests were from libraries. The number of reference requests received by phone was 49,741, 95.6% (47,560) of which were from individual users.

Reference service by e-mail has been available to registered libraries in Japan and overseas users since October 2002. In FY2004, 44% of the requests from registered libraries in Japan and 81% from overseas users were made by e-mail. 

In addition to the reference service to answer the questions posed by users, the NDL is enriching the website content that provides information on specific themes and collections and guides for search. 

c. Copying service for remote users

We received 180,486 requests (268,214 articles) for copying service from remote users in FY2004 (110,199 requests, 211,211 articles in the previous year). We receive requests via NDL-OPAC as well as postal mail, fax, and the NDL-ILL. The number of requests via NDL-OPAC comprised 73% of all the requests in FY2004 (63% in the previous year). Notably increased are the requests from individual users.
 

<Chart 3> Requests for copying service from libraries and remote users (number of articles requested)

2. On-site services

We started a user registration system in October 2002 and the registrants have increased stadily to 4,574 libraries and 64,085 individuals. Especially at the Tokyo Main Library, as the registrant can enter the library with simplified procedure, applications submitted by visitors was 2.6 times larger in number than FY2003. 

Services in Special Materials Rooms 

In parallel with the service renovation in October 2004, OPAC terminals for search and request have been installed in Special Materials Rooms of the Tokyo Main Building. Through the OPAC terminals, users can request some of the collection held by the Special Materials Room as well as general books and periodicals. Statistics of services at the Special Materials Rooms are shown in <Table 9>. 
 

Copying service

Reference service

<Chart 4> shows the monthly transition of the average number of visitors per day and requests for retrieval in FY2003 and FY2004. 
 

<Chart 4> 

Click for a larger image.

3.  Services of the International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL)

*"Canada and USA set" was added in FY2004 to the Book Sets Lending Service for school libraries.