National Diet Library Newsletter
No. 170, Dec. 2009
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Stacks of the NDL - Kansai-kan and International Library of Children´s Literature
Facilities Management Division, Administrative Department
This is based on an article of the same title
in NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 580 (July 2009).
1. Stacks of the Kansai-kan
The construction of the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library (NDL) started in 1998 and was completed in 2002. The building has four floors above ground and four floors underground, and has a total floor area of about 60,000 square meters, of which 80% is situated underground. The stacks, located from the second basement level to the fourth basement level, have a capacity of about six million books.
Sectional plan of the Kansai-kan
Floor plan of the Kansai-kan (fourth basement level)
Siting stacks below ground has the advantage that there is less shaking from earthquakes, but on the other hand, they could be threatened by flood damage. To doubly prevent the inflow of water into the stacks, machinery rooms and corridors are arranged around the stacks, and water resistant barriers are set up.
Fixed-shelf stacks, in which frequently used materials are stored (Photo 1), are installed from the second basement to the third basement, and electric compact-shelf stacks are installed on the fourth basement level. A two-story hall is built on the north side of the third and fourth basement level, and automatic stacks are installed there.
Photo 1: Fixed-shelf stacks
* Shelves are color-coded in eight colors. In the
south area of the stacks, shelves are colored with
warm colors such as red and yellow, and in the
north area, they are colored with cold colors such as
blue and green. Identification by colors and
compartments is also used in the Tokyo Main Library.
Photo 2: Conveyor shaft
* The conveyor shafts are installed to vertically carry the trays with materials through the wells which penetrate the stacks from the fourth to the first basement and the office area.
To make the circulation in the broad stack area efficient, book conveyor stations and elevators are installed at both end and in the center of the stacks (Photo 2).
As with the stacks of the Tokyo Main Library, there are book conveyer systems connecting the stacks and office area, or stations in the stacks. Self-propelled trolleys, which move on the rails built on the ceiling of the second basement of the stacks, carry the trays with materials horizontally (Photo 3). The total length of the rails is about 750 meters, and the maximum speed of a trolley is about 120 meters per minute.
Photo 3: Self-propelled trolley
Photo 4: Station
There are twenty-eight stations for the dispatch and collection of trays with materials (Photo 4). Trays with materials come and go between the stations in the stacks and counters.
2. Stacks of the International Library of Children´s Literature (ILCL)
The building that now houses the ILCL was constructed in 1906, extended in 1929, and totally renovated for the opening of the ILCL in May 2002.
Sectional plan of the ILCL
Floor plan of the ILCL (Second floor)
The building, which was originally used as the Imperial Library, had been designated as a historic building by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and as the building had historic value, the seismic isolation retrofit method, which makes a building a quake-absorbing structure while trying to preserve its original shape, was adopted.
In the retrofitting, the building was lifted up with hydraulic jacks and seismic isolators were installed in the basement. The seismic isolators are composed of laminated rubber bearing isolators (Photo 5) and lead dampers (Photo 6).
The seismic isolator is a device which raises a building in the air from the foundation to absorb the shaking from earthquakes and bear the weight of the building. Though the isolator reduces the shaking from earthquakes, it does not immediately suppress the shaking of the building, and thus a lead damper was installed as well.
Photo 5: Laminated rubber bearing isolator
Photo 6: Lead damper
Although the current stack area had been designed for the stacks from the beginning, the floors and posts of the stacks were demolished and rebuilt in order to have firm enough floors for the installation of compact shelves and to ensure fire control performance conforming to the latest Building Standards Act of Japan. The stack space occupies the second to the fourth floors of the building and is divided into six vertical levels in total. It has a storage capacity of approximately 400,000 books. In the stack area (Photo 7), windows are boarded up from the inside, and buffer corridors (stack surrounding spaces) are built in the inside (Photo 8), thus keeping out the sunlight and the temperature changes of the outside air.
Photo 7: Stack area (circled in red) with
windows boarded up from the inside
Photo 8: Boarded windows (right),
buffer corridor (center) and wall of stacks (left)
| Kansai-kan | ILCL | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross floor area | 59,311m2 | 6,671m2 |
| Stack area | 23,926m2 | 1,525m2 |
| Completed in | 2002 |
1906 1929 (extended) 2002 (totally renovated) |
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For more details on the stacks of the Kansai-kan and ILCL:
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