National Diet Library Newsletter
No. 167, Jun 2009
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NDL budget for fiscal 2009
This is a translation of the article of the same title
in the NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 577 (Apr. 2009).
The fiscal 2009 budget bill passed the National Diet on March 27, 2009. The total amount of the initial budget appropriated for the NDL is 21,584,212,000 yen for FY2009 (April 2009 - March 2010), a decrease of some 381 million yen compared with the previous years budget, caused by a decrease in the appropriation for development of information systems, and other reasons.
The composition of the total budget is:
- Personnel expenses: 43.3% (42.6% in FY2008)
- Acquisition of library materials: 11.7% (11.5% in FY2008)
- Development of information systems: 16.4% (17.7% in FY2008)
- Office expenses: 20.7% (20.0% in FY2008)
- Buildings and facilities: 7.9% (8.2% in FY2008)
Major expenditures of the 2009 budget are as follows:
1. Functional improvement of databases of laws and parliaments
About 99 million yen was approved: to add new functions to the Index Database to Japanese Laws, Regulations and Bills (in Japanese) to enable reference from the legislative history information of the Database to the text of laws and ordinances through external links; and to input image data into the Database System for the Minutes of the Imperial Diet (in Japanese) for the Meiji Era. The NDL plans to complete the inputting of the data into the Database System in FY2009 for the whole period.
2. Purchase of materials for Historical Records Archive
The Historical Records Archive Promotion Conference (HiRAC) launched a four-year plan from FY2009 to digitize and preserve early records (standard play) and metallic original disks, which are historically and culturally significant, recorded music conveying the social conditions of the times, and valuable speeches. To ensure the long-time preservation of the digitized sounds and provide them to the Japanese people, about 36 million yen was approved for their purchase.
3. Construction of Digital Archive
A digital archiving system which collects, preserves and offers digital information has been under construction since FY2005. For FY2009, as expenses for full-fledged operation of the system and the e-stacks etc., 754 million yen was approved. Of this, an act incurring liabilities on the national treasury* for the five years from FY2009 (total about 230 million yen) was approved for the operation of the e-stacks, that is, to add storage and other features.
*If an act incurring liabilities on the national treasury is approved, it will be possible to conclude a contract for multiple years.
4. Transfer of library materials from the Tokyo Main Library to the Kansai-kan
It is expected that the stacks of the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan will become full in FY2017. In order to use the stacks efficiently until then, some materials of the Tokyo Main Library are to be transferred to the Kansai-kan in FY2009 and FY2011. For FY2009, about 149 million yen was approved to transfer 370 thousand books.
5. Buildings and facilities
(1) Reinforcement of the Main Building against earthquake
The Main Building of Tokyo Main Library was built more than 40 years ago. As a result of the safety research on the architecture and the equipment since FY2006, it turned out that this building did not fully meet the earthquake-proof requirements against large-scale earthquakes (Japanese seismic intensity 6 plus to around 7). So the quake-resistant repair work is under planning. About 40 million yen was approved for design costs.
(2) Expansion of International Library of Childrens Literature
To advance its function as the national center of childrens literature, the construction of a new building and a renovation of the existing facilities for the International Library of Childrens Literature are planned. The designing is scheduled to take two years from FY2009. An act incurring liabilities on the national treasury for the two years from FY2009 (about 152 million yen in total) was allocated. For the first year, about 30 million yen was approved.
Amounts of National Diet Librarys FY2009 Expenditure Budget
(1,000yen)
| (Item) National Diet Library | 19,885,078 |
|---|---|
| ・Personnel costs | 9,337,131 |
| ・Regular office expenses | 252,459 |
| ・Legislative research | 395,130 |
| ・Acquisition of materials | 2,528,684 |
| of which recompense for deposit of publication | 390,249 |
| ・Development of information systems | 3,551,939 |
| ・Tokyo Main Library operations | 2,137,855 |
| ・International Library of Childrens Literature operation | 454,881 |
| ・Kansai-kan operation | 1,226,999 |
| (Item) Expenses for facilities | 1,699,134 |
| ・Improvement of quake-resistance of the Main Building | 40,485 |
| ・Expansion of International Library of Childrens Literature | 30,406 |
| ・Construction of the Entrance/Exit Checking System of the stacks of the Tokyo Main Library | 640,436 |
| ・Renovation of the fire protection shutters of the Main Building | 419,814 |
| ・Renovation of the Annex of the Tokyo Main Library | 320,792 |
| ・Renovation of the light fixtures of the Main Building | 122,939 |
| ・Maintenance of the Tokyo Main Library | 42,378 |
| ・Survey on the site and research on the building of the Kansai-kan | 46,221 |
| ・Maintenance of the Kansai-kan | 35,663 |
| Total | 21,584,212 |
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Large-scale digitization with the supplementary budget for FY2009 On May 29, 2009, the supplementary budget bill (No.1) for FY2009 passed the National Diet. With this budget, the NDL will conduct large-scale digitization of books, magazines, childrens books and magazines, rare and old materials, theses and official gazettes published in Japan. The total amount of the expense is 12,598,000,000 yen, which corresponds to the cost of digitizing 900,000 items. Although the NDL has previously mainly duplicated materials into microforms as means of preservation, it will change its policy and shift to digitization for greater accessibility. |
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