National Diet Library Newsletter
No. 165, Feb. 2009
Bibliographic data in the digital age
- ten years of catalogs-
Acquisitions and Bibliography Department
This is based on an article of the same title in the series
<"1998-2008" Topics during the last decade and future prospects>
in NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 572 (November 2008).
Contents
Introduction
1. Catalog search and bibliographic data
- 1.1 The former catalog hall
- 1.2 Maintenance of bibliographic data – database building and retrospective cataloging
2. Internet and services of bibliographic data and catalogs
3. Future of bibliographic data
- 3.1 Function of catalogs
- 3.2 New policies
Photo1
Photo2
Introduction
"Organization and provision of bibliographic data and catalogs" is one of the main pillars of the work of the National Diet Library (NDL); we work to create and widely disseminate the bibliography of Japanese publications Japanese National Bibliography Weekly List and also to manage and provide our collection systematically.
Here, we introduce the changes in bibliographic data and catalogs over the last decade and their future directions.
In this article, "bibliographic data" means the individual record of a material’s characteristics and "catalog" means a mechanism to make bibliographic data and location information searchable.
1. Catalog search and bibliographic data
1.1 The former catalog hall
Do you remember the catalog hall in the main building of the NDL before the mid-1990s (Photo 1)? Substantial wooden card cases stood in the hall and thick book catalogs were placed by the walls. Wandering between card boxes arranged by author name, title and subject headings, turning the catalog cards in Roman or Japanese alphabetical order, users found the catalog card for the material they wanted. That was the first step toward getting a library material.
The scene began to change gradually from 1989 when PC terminals for J-BISC (our CD-ROM catalog of Japanese books) became available to users. In 1992, an OPAC of our Western book holdings was also provided. New additions to the card boxes for Japanese books (Column 1) ceased at the end of March 1997 and they were replaced by an OPAC for Japanese books.
After that, public catalogs in the library changed through the Web-OPAC which covered Japanese & Western books and periodicals introduced in July 1999 to the NDL-OPAC (the current National Diet Library online public access catalog) in March 2003 in the Tokyo Main Library. In the Kansai-kan, the NDL-OPAC has been available since its opening in October 2002. More and more OPAC terminals have been added and more than 200 terminals have been provided just in the Tokyo Main Library in and after 2006 (Photo 2). In step with this, card catalogs have been gradually removed except that of the Imperial Library (one of the predecessors of the NDL) and some others.
1.2 Maintenance of bibliographic data – database building and retrospective cataloging
We started off this story from the changes in the catalog hall. To accomplish these changes we also needed to construct bibliographic databases in addition to developing search systems suited to the time. In the NDL, we introduced computers in the early 1970s and have been working on automating the processing and creating bibliographic databases. In 1981, we started to distribute new bibliographic data of books published in Japan as JAPAN/MARC in a machine readable format. We also started to output data from the database system for Japanese books in order to issue the Japanese National Bibliography Weekly List (Japanese only) and printed catalog cards used in domestic and overseas libraries.
As well as ordinary cataloging work, it became imperative to promote retrospective cataloging in order to expand the range of searchable materials. Retrospective cataloging data based on the book or card catalogs are also provided in JAPAN/MARC and other forms. We had already launched retrospective cataloging of Japanese books in 1979 and finished it in 1999 for books published in and after the Meiji era. Toward the opening of the Kansai-kan in 2002, the scope of retrospective cataloging was expanded to Western books in order to make a collection searchable regardless of its location (in Tokyo or in Kansai). In and after 2002, we have systematically been promoting retrospective cataloging of Japanese old books, Chinese books, audio and visual materials. These operations also helped to replace card catalogs with the OPAC in the catalog hall (Column 1).
*For detailed information on retrospective cataloging, please see "Progress of the retrospective cataloging of bibliographic data" (National Diet Library Monthly Bulletin No. 564 March 2008 pp.13-16).
Column: Old term and new term When we corrected bibliographic data on a catalog card, we used to scrape off the surface of the card with a razor. It was quite a skilled job. When two or more cards were used for one title, they were tied with lace yarns (or with twisted paper strings before that). Those things glide into the distant past. *expand = Even if a card box is filled up, to continue using the same card catalog by adding another card box. To extend catalog. |
2. Internet and services of bibliographic data and catalogs
2.1 From Web-OPAC to NDL-OPAC
So far, we have talked about "prehistory." The decade from 1998 was a kind of Internet age for bibliographic data.
In 1996 when the NDL website became public on the Internet, only a year's worth of bibliographic data of Japanese books could be searched. In March 2000 when the NDL website was refurbished, we made available the Web-OPAC which enabled users to search 2.2 milllion Japanese books and 200,000 foreign books. That was the first full-blown window on the Internet to access materials in the NDL.
In September 2002, prior to the opening of the Kansai-kan of the NDL in the following month, we made the NDL-OPAC public on the Internet, expanding the coverage of bibliographic data to all of the Japanese books published in and after the Meiji era, periodicals and others. In November 2002, some 5.4 million records of the Japanese Periodicals Index were added. The Japanese Periodicals Index made it possible to search articles in some 10,000 journals in Japan by title and author name, and to make requests for remote copying services from search results. It was appreciated by both domestic and foreign researchers on Japan.
The NDL-OPAC has continuously and gradually expanded its coverage: as of March 2008, it has about 17.59 million bibliographic data and makes them searchable from all over the world. It literally functions as a foundation of our library services.
Figure 1. History of provision of bibliographic data on the Internet
*Click on the figure for clearer image
Figure 2. Changes in the number of data in the NDL-OPAC
*Click on the figure for clearer image
2.2 Various services
Not only the NDL-OPAC, but the organization, utilization and provision of bibliographic data have been carried on in a variety of ways.
(1) "Nihon Zenkoku Shoshi" (Japanese National Bibliography Weekly List)
The National Diet Library Law, Article 7, stipulates that the Librarian shall provide, at periodic intervals not longer than one year, a catalog or index of the publications issued within Japan during the preceding year or period. In accordance with this article, we compile bibliographic data 50 times a year on publications issued in Japan and newly accepted by the NDL. Publication in a print version was discontinued at the end of June 2007, to be provided only online (related article).
We continue to offer bibliographic data to external institutions by distributing JAPAN/MARCs (50 times per year, in CD-Rs) and J-BISCs (six times per year, in CD-ROMs).
(2) NDL Asian Language Materials OPAC
This OPAC became public in 2002 for searching materials in various Asian languages which are not recorded on the NDL-OPAC. Books in ten Asian languages including Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, and Indonesian, and periodicals in Chinese and Korean, mainly handled by Asian Resources Division of the Kansai-kan of the NDL, are searchable.
(3) Union Catalogs
Unlike catalogs of only NDL holdings such as the NDL-OPAC and the NDL Asian Language Materials OPAC, union catalogs are compiled in cooperation with many libraries to integrate their catalogs and to provide holdings and location information. They can be used for interlibrary loan services. Construction of union catalogs is also prescribed in the Article 21 of the National Diet Library Law as the NDL’s mission.
"National Union Catalog Network System" (Japanese only) run by the Library Cooperation Division, Kansai-kan of the NDL, is a project to receive bibliographic data of Japanese books from prefectural and major city libraries in Japan to organize a database. Started as a full-fledged service in 1998, it has grown to a database containing over 37 million bibliographic and location data from 61 libraries in 2008. Search function became available on the Internet from 2004. In addition, the NDL operates the National Union Catalog of Newspapers in Japan, the National Union Catalog of Braille & Recorded Books in Japan and the Union Catalog of Children's Literature (Japanese only).
(4) Digital library and bibliographic data
The NDL digital library services started around the opening of the Kansai-kan of the NDL. They had a powerful influence on bibliographic data.
The Digital Library from the Meiji Era (Japanese only), which provides digitized images of books published in the Meiji and Taisho eras, takes advantage of bibliographic data retrospectively input. It also adds table of contents data to link to texts in image format. Through digitization and copyright clearance work, bibliographic data to be amended are found, which helps to maintain them.
In addition, metadata, bibliographic data on digital information, were engendered. They have the characteristics that not only are they data about digital information, but also they have easier descriptive elements (data of titles, creators, etc.) and formats to share on the Internet than traditional bibliographic data. From the latter half of the 1990s, new standards for metadata including the Dublin Core have been established.
The NDL formulated the "National Diet Library Metadata Element Set" in 2001 based on the Dublin Core, and launched services handling Internet information such as the NDL Web Archiving Project (WARP) and the Database Navigation Service (Dnavi) (Japanese only) in 2002.
In 2007, "National Diet Library Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DC-NDL)," the revision of the above-mentioned Set, was released. The NDL Digital Archive Portal (PORTA), released in 2007 as a portal site which allows users to make integrated search of digital archives throughout Japan, adopts the metadata elements of DC-NDL to record various data to encourage integrated information retrieval. PORTA makes it possible to search across external databases as well as internal data and has a variety of functions for search and provision, which indicates a broader possibility of making use of bibliographic data, not exclusive to the traditional use in OPACs.
Bibliography of specialized and subject fields, such as "Books on Japan" (lists of books on Japan written in Western languages) and "Bibliography of Persons in Modern Japanese Politics" (catalog with which you can search documents related to a certain political personages, in Japanese) are created by relating divisions. These are available on the NDL website by clicking "Online Catalogs" and "Search Guide."
While the Acquisitions and Bibliography Department is in charge of the administrative work of creation and provision of bibliographic data and bibliographic control including standardization, many other divisions are also responsible for the creation and maintenance of bibliographic data.
Figure 3. Relationship of bibliography services
3. Future of bibliographic data
3.1 Function of catalogs
Until now, we have talked about mainly: how many bibliographic data have been maintained and provided; and what services and systems we have. In addition, we would like to draw your attention to the retrieval support mechanism which enhances the reliability of catalogs and identifies required materials more effectively.
Needless to say, the mechanism includes bibliographic data created based on stable standards by applying cataloging rules, etc., as well as the creation and maintenance of authority files which record names of persons, corporate bodies and others. We can collocate an author’s works and distinguish him/her from another person with the same name by recording his/her name in the bibliographic data based on authority files.
In addition, we have maintained subject headings with the authority file of subject headings. Subject headings are controlled vocabularies to show subjects of works and are recorded in bibliographic data as keys for searching. We revised the National Diet Library List of Subject Headings (NDLSH) from 2003 to 2006 so that it can be utilized more effectively for searching databases. We enriched references and added information on the relationship between related subject headings such as broader terms, related terms and narrower terms. This enhanced availability of the subject headings, for example, related subject headings can be seen with the search results of the NDL-OPAC to be keys for further search.
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Now, libraries all over the world are trying to find a way to make use of the functions of catalogs in the world of the Internet, which have been accumulated in libraries. Aiming at further enhancement of the functions of catalogs, the formulation of new cataloging rules is promoted based on the "Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)" created by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in 1998 (Column 2). One of its aims is to make a variety of sets about a work and navigate users to the information they want. |
Ahead of this consideration, new library search systems, which started to replace existing OPACs, do not shut themselves in the world of traditional catalogs. They have links to and utilize search engines like Google; online bookstores like Amazon.com; services like Wikipedia, an encyclopedia on the Internet; and other useful digital information on the Internet. Furthermore, these new systems have common characteristics in that they employ the FRBR model and offer functions with which people and other systems can utilize data derived from bibliographic information freely; and that they take in data made and added by users (Column 3).
Column: Old term and new term |
3.2 New policies
Time has been changing from the age when many OPACs became available on the Internet to the age when users access and make full use of a variety of digital information inside and outside libraries. Now, we offer the above-mentioned bibliographic services separately. For example, the NDL-OPAC and the NDL Asian Language Materials OPAC are different services, and are like the union catalogs and Japanese National Bibliography Weekly List. It is our task to implement functions for integrated retrieval and mutual coordination in these services. We started with easier issues, such as linkage from the search results of the NDL-OPAC to digitized materials provided with the Digital Library from the Meiji Era.
In 2008, we drew up the "Policy for Creation and Provision of Bibliographic Data in the National Diet Library (2008)," and have been improving our bibliographic services based on the following six policies:
- To enhance the openness of bibliographic data on the premise of provision on the Internet, so that users can easily obtain and make use of bibliographic data in various ways;
- To facilitate information retrieval systems;
- To make a variety of resources including digital resources seamlessly accessible;
- To enhance the effectiveness of bibliographic data;
- To promote efficient and speedy creation of bibliographic data;
- To utilize outside resources, knowledge and technology.
Putting these policies into effect targeting the five years from 2008, we aim to create and provide bibliographic data as the foundation of our future information services.
[Related information]
The above-mentioned services are available via the NDL website (please note that some are in Japanese only). You can access the following documents as well:
- Metadata standards (Japanese only)
http://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/standards/index.html - National Diet Library List of Subject Headings (NDLSH) (Japanese only)
http://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/library/data/ndl_ndlsh.html - NDL Bibliographic Data Newsletter (Japanese only)
Newsletter to introduce a variety of information relating to bibliographic information (published quarterly)
http://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/library/data/bib_newsletter/index.html