Opened in October 2002, the Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library (NDL) marked its 10th anniversary in 2012. Including the 20 years before its opening, 30 years have already passed since its project was launched.

On its 10th anniversary, the NDL is now undertaking a thorough review for the Kansai-kan to take the next step. This article outlines the background to the establishment of the Kansai-kan, its current situation and future perspectives.

<<The Kansai-kan logo to commemorate the 10th anniversary of its opening>>

The planning of the Kansai-kan started in June 1982 with the establishment of the Research Committee for the Kansai Project of the NDL. The NDL started discussing the functions to be reallocated the new facility, in accordance with the report submitted by the committee in 1987¹. The outcome of the discussions took the form of the First Basic Plan for the Establishment of the Kansai-kan (provisional name) of the NDL (August 1988)² and the following Second Basic Plan for the Construction of the Kansai-kan (provisional name) of the NDL (August 1991)³. After the Recommendations for construction of the Kansai-kan were submitted by the NDL Building Commission to the Diet in December 1994, the full-fledged project was launched. These recommendations suggested constructing a library of 82,500㎡ in total site area and 165,000㎡ of total floor space⁴, in Kansai Science City, Seika, Nishi-kizu area.

In August 1996, the first prize for the Design Competition was awarded among 493 entries from Japan and beyond. Construction started in October 1998; the Kansai-kan of the NDL eventually opened in October 2002.

<<Opening ceremony of the Kansai-kan on October 5, 2002>>

In the last 10 years, the Kansai-kan has carried out many new projects and services. The chronological table below shows the main events after its opening.

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In the Second Basic Plan, the Kansai-kan was designed to promote the national library’s role in a new era, working in tandem with the Tokyo Main Library. The functions of the Kansai-kan were intended as follows:

Now let’s look at the current situation of the Kansai-kan in terms of how much these three functions have been achieved.

3.1 Transmitting document information

The Kansai-kan functions as the reception office for requests of remote photocopy and interlibrary loan service. This allows users to make a request via the Internet (NDL-OPAC) any time, anywhere, no matter where a collection item is located among the NDL three facilities: Tokyo Main Library, Kansai-kan, and International Library of Children’s Literature.

The Kansai-kan has also been focusing on providing digitized contents. The rough number of digitized items available through Internet services such as the Digital Library from the Meiji Era, was raised from 30,000 at its opening up to current 410,000. Moreover, the Web Archiving Project (WARP) started in full swing in July 2006 after its experimental stage. With the amendment of the National Diet Library Law and Copyright Law of July 2009, the NDL began to harvest and preserve websites of national and public organizations without their express permission in April 2010. As a result, a total of some 44,000 captures from about 7,000 websites are now released; the cumulative volume of data reached 140TB. The Digital Library from the Meiji Era was accessed about 33.3 million times annually (counted image-based), and the WARP about 720 thousand times (counted website-based).⁵

To support transmitting document information, the Kansai-kan houses periodicals in western languages, spare copies of Japanese books, reports on science and technology, and materials related to Asia. To cope with the shortage of storage space in the Tokyo Main Library, on the other hand, a total of 105 million volumes were moved from Tokyo to the Kansai-kan in the FY2009 and 2011. Equalizing the stack occupancy of East and West facilities, this enabled the NDL as a whole to secure storage of library materials. As of the end of the FY2011, the Kansai-kan holds roughly 120 thousand titles of periodicals and 3 million volumes of books.

<<Reading room>>

3.2 Providing services globally

As mentioned earlier, the Kansai-kan receives remote photocopy requests. This photocopy service, which can be ordered via the NDL-OPAC, has made it much easier for overseas users to get information on Japan.

The Kansai-kan also helps to deliver information on Japan by transmitting primary sources online via the Digital Library from the Meiji Era, WARP and other services.

In the Asian Resources Room of the Kansai-kan⁶, a wealth of Asian language materials is located: roughly 350 thousand volumes of books, 7,800 titles of periodicals and yearbooks, and 700 titles of newspapers. Materials related to Asia in Japanese and Western languages, and Chinese and Korean e-journals, are also available. As the cataloging of Asian language materials has been carried forward, bibliographic information in almost all languages is now available on the NDL-OPAC. Instructive tools on researching Asia, such as AsiaLinks (Asia-related web links), are provided online. Furthermore, training programs on Asian resources which target librarians, and meetings with organizations specializing in Asian Resources, are organized to promote collaboration in this area across Japan.

In regard to the digital library project, the NDL joined the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) and is internationally contributing in web archiving.

<<Asian Resources Room>>

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3.3 Promoting new library cooperation

The Kansai-kan promotes library cooperation by handling the Interlibrary Loan services as well as by operating networking systems such as NDL-OPAC, National Union Catalog Network known as “Yunika Netto” (integrated to NDL search in January 2012), the Collaborative Reference Database, etc. Moreover, this year, the Kansai-kan started to provide primary source contents to public libraries. At the moment, the contents for the service are limited to the Historical Recordings Collection, but will be broadened to digitized books.
In the area of research on libraries and library and information science, the Kansai-kan annually produces a visible result. For example, in FY2011, we published The Great East Japan Earthquake and Libraries as an NDL Research Report. The Kansai-kan provides group training programs, e-Learning programs and training programs on reference service by NDL staff　 dispatched to libraries in Japan. The Kansai-kan also carries out various training programs for librarians and information experts outside of Japan.

At the end of this article, I would like to cite the following three points for the future perspectives of the Kansai-kan.

4.1 Raising the institutional profile

The Kansai-kan was originally intended not only as a new wing of the NDL, the sole national library of Japan, but also as a central hub in the Kansai Science City in response to requests from the local area . Taking its history into account, we want more and more people in the Kansai region to visit our facility. However, the Kansai-kan remains worryingly terra incognita compared with the Tokyo Main Library, despite its significant operations. One reason might to be the difficulty of access from the major cities and fewer opportunities for active public relations. We should continue to transmit information about the library through various channels, in addition to the continuous activities such as “Open Day at the Kansai-kan of the NDL” which children also can participate in, exhibitions of the Kansai-kan materials and library guidance by staff dispatched from the library.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of its opening, the Kansai-kan held an exhibition “100 years of libraries in the Kansai Region and 10 years of the Kansai-kan,” two lecture meetings and an international symposium, which contributed to increasing the public image of the Kansai-kan.

<<Open Day at the Kansai-kan of the NDL>>

4.2 Expanding and improving the facilities

One of the purposes of building the Kansai-kan was to ensure a large-scale storage facility. After 10 years since the completion of the first construction, more than 80% of its storage, with a capacity of six million volumes, is already filled. The storage space of the three facilities will be really bursting at the end of FY2017. Expansion of the storage by the second construction of the Kansai-kan is an urgent issue of the NDL as a whole.

<<Underground stack of the Kansai-kan>>

4.3 Reallocating functions between the Tokyo Main Library and the Kansai-kan

Establishment of the Digital Information Department in the Tokyo Main Library in October 2011, encouraged us to reconsider the division of responsibility for the digital library projects of the NDL between Tokyo and Kansai. The related role sharing in other areas should also be viewed.
The Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, inflicted damage to a part of the stacks in the Tokyo Main Library. At that time, the Kansai-kan supported the Tokyo Main Library in catering to users’ needs (mainly reader services). The backup function in the event of a disaster will continue to be of vital importance.
The NDL three facilities work together even more closely to enhance its services, capitalizing on each feature with appropriate role-sharing.
The Kansai-kan started off as a library facility built upon an untended area of wild land. The pioneer spirit cultivated from the experience takes root in the soil of the Kansai-kan which does not hesitate to tackle a new challenge. The mettle of our staff to unflinchingly grapple with emerging issues is a great asset to the Kansai-kan.

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1. http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/service/kansai/about/history_198704.html
2. http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/service/kansai/about/history_198808.html
3. http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/service/kansai/about/history_199108.html
   Referred to as the Second Basic Plan, later in this article.
4. These figures are final goals. The first stage goal of total floor space is 60,000㎡.
5. Basic statistics of the FY2011.
6. NDL Newsletter No. 174 (August 2010) carries a related article.