National Diet Library Newsletter
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"Being the Brains for the
Legislative Branch,
as well as the MPs' Information
Center"
The Latest Service Developments
after
Confirming Both Functions
by Hisae UMEDA
Overseas Legislative Information Research Service
Research and Legislative Reference Bureau
This
is the article
presented at the 9th APLAP (Association of Parliamentary
Librarians of Asia and the
Pacific) Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, in November 2006.
SummaryFacing severe challenges both |
1. "The Guiding Principle for Services to the Diet"
"Being the Brains for the
Legislative Branch, as well as the MPs' Information Center," shown
above in the title of this paper, indicates the guiding principle for
the services to be provided to the Diet (or Parliament) by the National
Diet Library. The principle was adopted early this year to set out the
basic stance of the Library in performing its services to the
Diet1) more competently and responsively.
The Brains The "Brains" symbolize such
services as producing in-depth and/or analytical research that is based
on higher expertise in each special subject, as well as on extensive
and objective data and information, to assist the Diet Members to
fulfill their duties. The services vary from writing a brief research
paper in response to an individual request, to more comprehensive,
interdisciplinary and long-range research projects undertaken in
anticipation of the issues to be discussed in the Diet in the near
future. Sometimes the "Brains" provide face-to-face services to the
Members or their working groups, in briefing or lecturing on the topics
in question. Also the "Brains," upon request, may advise and assist any
Committee in the analysis or evaluation of pending legislation. In
short, the "Brains" will play the role of a think-tank or consultants
for the legislative branch.
All such services are exclusively assigned to the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau ("the Bureau") of the Library. The Information Center On the other hand, the "MPs'
Information Center" literally refers to the function of providing
appropriate information and materials relevant to the requests of the
Members quickly and accurately. Not only the whole of the materials
collected by the Library under the legal deposit system2),
totaling more
than 8 million volumes of books, 180 thousand titles of periodicals, 10
thousand titles of newspapers and thousands of other materials in
various forms, but also any information that is available for us today,
domestic or foreign, digital or non-digital, might be used for these
services.
The function of the MPs'
Information Center is carried out by the Library as a whole, while it
is assumed that the Bureau has an actual and primary responsibility in
the services of this function, too. Especially the Bureau has been
emphasizing development of the information services through
its own Intranet web-site known as "Chosa no Mado" (literally meaning
"Windows on Research Services," or gateway to electronic services) for
several years3).
2. The First Survey of the Needs of MembersBefore adopting the Guiding
Principle, the Library conducted a systematic survey of the needs of
the Diet Members for the first time in its 58 years' history, from July
through August 2005. The 47 Diet Members answered quite candidly and
conscientiously to the queries of the interviewers, most of the senior
and associate senior specialists of the Bureau.
Findings of the Survey The findings of the survey
suggested very clearly that the Members perceived both functions of the
Library, namely its in-depth analytical research and
fact-finding information services, as essential and
integral parts of the services they needed. The findings most favorable
to the Library were as follows:
At the same time, some negative perceptions were mentioned as follows:
To Respond to the Findings The findings convinced the
Library that it should provide the Members with as much basic
fact-finding information and materials as analytical research services
in an effective manner. Thus the Guiding Principle was drafted on the
basis of the findings.
3. The Latest Reorganization and Other DevelopmentsAccording to the Guiding
Principle, the Library worked out an implementation program for
fulfilling each type of service more competently, efficiently and
responsively. One of the efforts prescribed in the program was a
partial reorganization of the Bureau.
Effective Sorting and Assigning of the Requests The reorganization was carried
out April 2006, in the purpose of more
effective sorting of the requests and their assigning to the
appropriate division in the Bureau.
In the
Bureau, through which most
of the services to the Diet are substantially provided, there are 10
research divisions and 4 supporting or information divisions. Each of
the research divisions is responsible for a special subject, such as
politics/parliament, judicial affairs, diplomacy/defense, finance,
economy/industry, agriculture, land/communication, education/culture,
social welfare/labor, and foreign legislation. The staff of each
research division takes on research or analytical work according to
requests received. Where book lending, copying or simple fact-finding
services are requested, the Legislative Reference and Information
Resources Division, one of the 4 supporting divisions above, is
responsible for the services.
Nevertheless, a certain part of
simple fact-finding services used to be
carried out by each research division, mainly because of a dramatic
increase in the total number of requests, which might curtail the
capacity of research or analytical services. An effort to simply expand
personnel without substantial knowledge of information and experience
in research services would hardly have brought an effective
impact.
This time the Bureau seems to have achieved the reorganization more successfully, in adopting a noticeable deployment of personnel in the Legislative Reference and Information Resources Division. In the reorganization, one head researcher was posted in the Division, especially to be responsible to sort the requests and assign them to the appropriate divisions. In addition, 3 junior chief researchers who had considerable experience of research services in one subject area, politics, economy, and social affairs respectively, were assigned to the Division to provide more reliable fact-finding services. Consequently some 45% of the requests are now handled by the Division, compared with about 30% in the years prior to the reorganization. Each research division now has been able to concentrate more on the research and analytical services including face-to-face lecturing services to the Members. Other Developments
Most of those measures are
designed to promote the function of the "Brains" in a much more
conspicuous manner. In relation to the function
of the "Information Center" too, some efforts have been launched or
enhanced as follows:
4. The Library Facing Serious Challenges: A Review of the DecadeOne of the major reasons why
the Library especially now has confirmed and set out the determination
for further improvement of its services, taking into account the
findings of survey of the Members' needs, lies in the developments of
serious challenges faced by the Library during the decade.
br>
Tighter
Budget and More RequestsSince early 1990s, Japan has
fallen into a difficult financial situation which obliges the
government to incur less budget and cut down the services it provides.
Restructuring has proceeded everywhere in both private or public
sectors. In relation to the Library, the increase in the number of
staff for the services to the Diet has been very small, though the
number of requests for legislative support services from the Members
has radically grown. In FY2005, answers provided by the Bureau in reply
to requests totaled 41,394, showing an increase of 170% during the
decade, while the number of staff of the Bureau grew modestly from 152
to 176 during the
period.
[Fig.1]
* When researchers use plural answer forms (e.g. book lending, copying, lecturing, research paper etc.) for one request, the number of answers becomes more than one. Therefore, the total number of answers does not accord with the number of requests. Trends of Political Reform The severe financial situation
led to discussions to call for more efficient and accountable political
decision-making and stronger leadership in the government. Fair
distribution of limited resources and adjusting the interests of
various parties in the society have become most important matter of
politics. The international circumstances after the end of the Cold War
also urged a change in the way of policy-making in the country. A clear
policy-making process was needed instead of the traditional
paternalistic or bureaucratic form. After long discussions, a new
electoral system (single-member constituency/proportional
representation) for the Lower House was introduced in the mid-1990s and
has been carried out 4 times since. Both political candidates and
political parties now appear to be more policy-oriented and eager to
collect information and analysis helpful for their policy-making.
Consequently, the requests to the Library have been more demanding not
only in the quality of research required but also in the promptness of
reply (See figures 2 and 3).
[Fig.2]
[Fig.3]
In step with the political
reform, the Diet itself has been exposed to reform trends. The way and
manner in which deliberation is conducted in the Diet has interested
more of the public. Most of the live debates on the Floor and in the
Committees in both Houses are now provided by the Secretariats of the
Houses on the Internet and are accessible to the public. The records of
texts of the debates also are available to everybody through the
"Full-Text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet," which is
produced by the Library and provided on its Home Page, as well as on
the Intranet web-site. More transparency in the discussions in the Diet
has made it much more important for the Members to carry out their
debates competently. Thus, more Members request data and materials and
other information from the Library to prepare for questioning or
discussions in the Diet.
Further Impacts of the Reform Trends What is more, some support
organizations in the Diet other than the Library have actively
undertaken their own research projects with competent staff, following
the trends of Diet reform. The Research Service of the House of
Representatives and each Committee research service of the House of
Councillors currently publish periodicals full of substantial articles
helpful for the Members. And also, the political parties have recently
established their own think-tanks to provide research and
recommendations for policy-making. In short, there exist more
competitive circumstances now both within and outside the Diet.
First Strategy and its Developments in 2001～2005 Against these trends, the
Library elaborated a strategy and developed a succession of remarkable
measures. The first strategy was established in 2001, in which the
Library identified its services to the Diet in putting stronger
emphasis on the analytical approach to research, as well as on the
provision by electronic media of more information useful for the
parliamentary process. During the period 2001 to 2005, the following
efforts were developed under the strategy:
"Crisis management systems in
western democracies" (2002)
"Structural reforms in the U.S.A.
since 1980s" (2003)
"Aging society with fewer
children" (2003-04)
"Regional revitalization"
(2004-05)
"Expanding European Union-present
and future" (2005-06)
"Establishment of peace-the role
of Japan" (2006)
"Foreigners
in a society of decreasing population" (2006-07),
5. To Support Strengthening the Legislative Branch"The Guiding Principle for
Services to the Diet" mentioned earlier in this paper also reflects a
series of such strategies to provide better services to the Diet under
severe circumstances. This time, however, both functions of the
services, the brains and the information center, are more clearly
identified as integral parts of the legislative support services of the
Library.
Today crucial political issues
on both international and domestic affairs have been emerging one after
another, which requires more accountable and substantive debates in the
Diet. The Library is willing to develop both functions under the
Guiding Principle in making more competent, efficient and responsive
services helpful for the Diet to perform its duties and strengthen its
functions.
 1)
The reference to "the services to the Diet" refers to the services to
be provided for the two Houses, Committees, Members and other persons
concerned, such as aides to the Members or the staff of political
parties.
2)
The Library collects all publications issued in Japan under the legal
deposit system, including packaged electronic publications, films and
disks.
3)
Developments of the Intranet web-site "Chosa no Mado" have been
referred to in the following papers:
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