This is a translation of the article of the same title
in the NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 556 (July 2007).

Kansai-kan runs services for remote users and three projects as well as services for visitors. The three projects are (1) Digital Archiving Project, (2) Library Cooperation Project, and (3) Sending out information on Asia.
These projects are carried out through the Internet. Therefore we can say the Kansai-kan is the core of online projects.

Fig. 2 Projects and services of the Kansai-kan

Development as the base of the Digital Archiving Project

Digital archiving means here to collect, accumulate, provide accumulatedweb information and create contents by digitizing the collection of the NationalDiet Library (NDL). Corresponding to the changes in the information environmentand society itself, the NDL works on it in light of its role of collection, accumulationand preservation of domestic paper publications and other forms.

1) Acquisition, accumulation, and provision of web information

It is said that the average life of web information is 75 days and the numberof URLs for citing academic papers decreases by half in four years. While intellectualassets are being generated on the Internet, a lot of information disappears everyday. Web information is so convenient as a part of the information infrastructurethat is already close to peoples’ communities and life style. However,from the aspect of preservation, it still has systemic and technical challenges.Therefore national libraries, as preservation libraries are expected to takeon the role of preserving such information as well as paper materials.

The NDL Digital Archiving System is now under development withthe main objectives of wide collection of digital information, provision andlong-term preservation for future use. The system is planned to start full-fledgedoperation in FY2009.

Specifically, digital information includes digitized library materialsin image or text file format and packaged materials such as DVDs and CDs, inaddition to websites.

We will employ systems that can register and acquire digital journals anddigital books on per-work basis and academic papers on per-paper basis. For collectingeach website, we use a web crawler under license.
We assign metadata to contentsand store them in a large amount of digital storage as an information package.

Fig.3 Image of the NDL Digital Archiving System

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2) Digitization of the NDL collection

About 130,000 books published in the Meiji era are already available in theDigital Library from the Meiji Era in the NDL website. Currently the daily averagenumber of accesses is 17,000. It reveals how high the potential demand for thosematerials is.
At present, we are making steady progress with digitizing the rest of the bookspublished in the Meiji era and books published in the Taisho era. We added about16,000 books published in the Taisho era on July 3, 2007.

3) Need for internal and external cooperation in digital archiving projects

Public and university libraries, various kinds of archives, private companiesand others are also promoting digitization of materials. On the other hand, inold libraries and archives, a lot of materials published in the Meiji era arelikely to be still left to be digitized.

We cannot say that the DigitalLibrary from the Meiji Era covers all the bookspublished in the era because it includes only the NDL holdings.
To build a national digital collection, we need to develop cooperative activitiesin respect of the collections of other institutions in addition to ours. At present,we are surveying the current condition of materials published in the Meiji erain major institutions in the Kinki region.

We also need both domestic and overseas coordination and cooperation on systemdesigning. System designing, which enables us to collect digital informationwidely, preserve it for a long time and ensure future access to it, is demandednot only by the NDL but also by the institutions related to the development ofdigital archives inside and outside Japan.
Coordination and cooperation are also necessary for the standardization and versatilityof systems.

Library cooperation projects

Library cooperation projects in the Kansai-kan are divided into five: thetraining projects, the research and study projects on libraries and library informationscience, the National Union Catalog Network project, the Collaborative ReferenceDatabase project and the library cooperation projects for physically-challengedpeople. The consistent direction which underlies these projects is digitization,in other words, promotion of cooperation projects via the Internet.

One of the advantages of digitization is that we can provide avast amount of information and services to a great number of libraries and users.

■ Training projects
In the training projects, we provide online training programs via the Internetas well as on-the-spot training programs. In FY2006, we provided online trainingprograms titled “Basic idea of preservation of materials.” In FY2007, “ABCof digitizing materials” and “Diversity of Japanese books” areadded. We plan to hold five or six training programs every year by adding lecturesgradually.

■ Research and study projects on libraries and library informationscience
We set up the “Current AwarenessPortal” in FY2006 which is a high quality medium for information distribution.It allows us to read articles and results of researches at one time. We planto promote the secondary use of it by processing and editing, for example, producingaccumulated edition by theme.

■ National Union Catalog Network project
In addition to the current centralized database, we will add the functions ofdistributed databases whereby catalogs operated in prefectural or local areascan be searched. We will reorganize a system based on member libraries whichmanage union catalogs in those areas. We will then call for participation inthe distributed databases.

■ Collaborative Reference Database Project
We will promote further increase of participants and data in the CollaborativeReference Database Project with the aim of obtaining participants from more thanhalf of all domestic libraries in five years.

■ Library cooperation projects for the physically challengedpeople
Reflecting libraries’ increasing awareness of extending their servicesto a wider range of physically-challenged people, the NDL will focus on expandingits services of recorded academic literature.

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Sending out information on Asia

In recent years, the Internet environment has advanced so dramaticallyin Asia that the rushing tide of digitization has never slowed down. On the otherhand, international circumstances surrounding the Middle East and North EastAsia increasingly stimulate the demand for information on Asia. Under this circumstance,we acquire books, serials and newspapers in Asia and provide services of transmittingAsian information by processing and editing web information.

We also recognize reference services and remote services as servicesof transmitting information and are making efforts for the further enrichmentof those services. Including information on Japan, the Kansai-kan will be thebase for transmission of information on Asia. In other words, we will improvethe contents of Asian Resources Room website including the English version. Inparticular, we focus on the following three points:

1) NDL Asian Language Materials OPAC

We provide bibliographic information in major languages covered via the OPAC.In the mid- and long-term, we intend to integrate it with the NDL-OPAC.

2) Asia Links-Link pages on Asia-

We enrich and facilitate search for the “AsiaLinks-Link pages on Asia-,” alink page to websites on Asia by country and region.

3) Directory of Institutions for Asian Studies in Japan

We promote participation from institutions and try to make it comprehensive enoughto grasp all the domestic collections on Asia. We also use it as the base forstrengthening coordination and cooperation between member institutions.

To visitors, we provide specialized services on Asia taking advantageof the 30,000 items on open shelves, 280,000 books in the stacks, 7,000 titlesof serials, digital information, and the expertise and talent of staff members.

To utilize the Kansai-kan as a place for communication amongstaff members of libraries on Asia, we hold training seminars and discussionsessions. Keeping in mind coordination and cooperation with related institutionsand researchers on Asian regions, we make efforts to strengthen ties with Westernlibraries which have Asian collections as well as to create a network of Asianpeople through communication with domestic institutes and libraries in Asiancountries.

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Remote services

The Kansai-kan has been functioning as a contact point for remote servicesand providing services in tandem with the Tokyo Main Library.
On the basis of past achievements,we will continue to improve the convenience of remote services.

1) Copying service by mail

The number of requests for copying is increasing dramatically because it becamepossible to request copying service from a search result page of the NDL-OPACon the web. In FY2006, 300,000 items were processed for copying. The Kansai-kanhas also succeeded in speeding up processing by achieving delivery of copiedproducts of indexed periodicals in the Japanese Periodicals Index in three days.(See graph: Number of requests for copying)

Graph: Number of requests for remote copying service

Copying from the Kansai-kan materials can speed up the process.Copying from spare copies of the Kansai-kan holdings can also contribute indirectlyto the preservation of materials. In order to promote copying from spare copiesof the Kansai-kan holdings, we need to collect intensively heavily-used Japaneseserials including indexed periodicals in the Japanese Periodicals Index.

2) Interlibrary loan

The total number of materials lent has been increasing steadily from 13,298 to16,502 for the past four years from FY2002. It gives us a new recognition ofthe significance of interlibrary loan because it increased under the circumstancethat interlibrary loan is actively carried on among local libraries thanks tothe National Union Catalog Network project.

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The purposes of the establishment of the Kansai-kan are: to securelarge storage space in order to cope with increase of library materials, andto provide library services which adapt to the development of high informationcommunication technology. Now, the stack capacity is 6 million volumes, and afterthe 2nd phase of the construction, a large expansion of its capacity is expected.As a result, the Kansai-kan will play a role as the facility with a large capacityfor the entire library. In the coming five years with a leap to growth, we areto have a forecast for the 2nd phase of the stack construction.

The following materials were moved from the Tokyo Main Libraryto the Kansai-kan in 2002, to match the Kansai-kan’s functions: scienceand technology materials, materials in Asian languages other than Japanese, Westernmagazines, Japanese doctoral dissertations, and spare copies of some Japanesebooks. The Kansai-kan has continued to acquire the materials above since itsopening. It now holds about 1.96 million volumes of books and 3.48 items of periodicals(as of the end of FY2006). The details are given in the following table. It ispossible that the total number of holdings will exceed 10 million within FY2007.

(As of March 2007)

Category A (items) *library materials intended for long-term preservation	Total	9,628,524
	Books	1,959,355
	Japanese and Chinese books	1,050,260
	Books in Western languages	909,095
	Periodicals	3,479,703
	Magazines	2,999,178
	issued in Japan	995,504
	issued in foreign countries	2,003,674
	Newspapers	480,525
	issued in Japan	14,437
	issued in foreign countries	466,088
	Non-book materials	4,189,466
Category B (items) *library materials not intended for long-term preservation	Total	61,176
	Materials purchased for providing on the open shelves	55,500
	Books	2,015
	Periodicals	53,484
	Non-book materials	1
	Materials purchased for interlibrary loan service	3,597
	Reference Materials for Work	2,079

Table: Details of the Kansai-kan collection: 9,689,700 items in total

According to the second basic plan for the Kansai-kan”[*4],100 million items of holdings (including 20 million volumes of books) are expectedto be held in the Kansai-kan within 21st century. After the second phase of itsconstruction, the number of holdings in the Kansai-kan will exceed that in theTokyo Main Library (12 million volumes). It is not too early for us to startconsidering the whole image of the Kansai-kan with the larger collection thanthat in Tokyo, given that it took nearly 20 years from planning to constructionthe Kansai-kan.

We need to prepare for expansion of the stacks in the Kansai-kan,which are the place to gather our cultural treasure of library materials, withkind understanding and cooperation from all concerned.

[*4] The full title is the "Second Basic Plan for the Constructionof the Kansai-kan of the NDL (provisional name)." It was formulated in 1991.Its outline and full-text(Japanese only) are available on the NDL website.

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