Activity Performance Evaluation in FY2024

The National Diet Library (NDL) has widely promoted its vision, "National Diet Library, Vision 2021-2025: The Digital Shift at the National Diet Library" (hereinafter referred to as "Vision 2021-2025"). Based on the purpose of Vision 2021-2025, we perform Activity Performance Evaluation at the end of each fiscal year to assess achievements in our initiatives and basic roles formulated in Vision 2021-2025.

In order to carry out these evaluations in an objective manner, we have established a set of evaluation indicators and associated indicators.
Evaluation indicators are designed to provide a means of describing internal library operations, services provided to patrons, and other library services that can be quantified in terms of time required or other objective factors, and for which targets can be established at the beginning of each fiscal year in accordance with the scale and nature of the operations involved, thereby allowing emerging trends to be identified through comparison with the achievement level of previous years.
Associated indicators are largely influenced by external factors out of the control of the NDL, which makes the establishment of targets less than meaningful, even though these indicators are useful in identifying emerging trends that affect library operations.

As the framework for the Activity Performance Evaluation is formulated based on Vision 2021-2025, we evaluate activities concerning our initiatives in addition to general activities, which correspond to the "basic roles" in Vision 2021-2025. Evaluation of each general activities category uses set phrases considering the achievement levels for evaluation indicators and trends exhibited by associated indicators, as well as the state of implementation of each activity. Evaluation of each initiatives activities category involves a qualitative assessment that includes comprehensive consideration of the status of the achievement.

All evaluation results are as follows:
Evaluation details for Activity Performance Evaluation in FY2024 (only in Japanese) (PDF: 458KB)

Overview and objectives

We will continue to utilize all available library materials as well as databases and other digital information resources to provide highly reliable responses (including the email delivery of copyrighted works that began in January 2024) to requests from Diet members for objective research and analysis. We will undertake research on national policy issues in order to facilitate the deliberation of national affairs, and we will publish the results of this research for use in responding to requests for research. We will also hold policy seminars at which we present our research to Diet members.

We will work to enhance our research services by strengthening cooperation with universities, research facilities, and other parliamentary institutions, both in Japan and overseas, as a means of proactively acquiring a wide range of advanced academic knowledge.

We will undertake a wide range of research projects on basic national policy issues as well as policies related to science and technology—many of which are subject to legal, social, and ethical challenges—and examine these issues from a comprehensive and advanced perspective available through the expertise of outside experts. Moreover, we will make the results of these studies openly available to the public. In FY2024, we will carry out an interdisciplinary research project, "Population Decline and Regional Challenges," and three science and technology research projects ("Trends and Issues in Ocean Affairs," "Food Tech: Exploring the Challenges and Potential of Innovative Food Solutions," and "AI and Society in Perspective").

We will also continue to work to provide both Diet members and the general public with easy access to information generated by the National Diet, including a Full-Text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet as well as an Index Database to Japanese Laws, Regulations and Bills. These resources will be enhanced with content and functionality developed by the NDL as part of our role in helping to connect the Diet with the people it represents. In the first half of FY 2024, regarding the Database System for the Minutes of the Imperial Diet, we will start providing text data for the minutes of the Imperial Diet from November 1890 to August 1945. In addition, we will add many Imperial Diet materials issued by the House of Peers and the House of Representatives to the National Diet Library Digital Collections.

Evaluation

We achieved our objectives.

Overview and objectives

We will continue to acquire a wide range of domestic publications through the legal deposit system. We will also continue to acquire the websites of national agencies, municipal governments, and other public institutions, as stipulated in the National Diet Library Law, as well as the content of privately operated websites involved in the recording of historical events or which are otherwise of public importance, with the permission of their webmasters. Privately published e-books and e-magazines will continue to be acquired through the E-legal Deposit System of Online Publications.

We will promote the utilization of the newly‑enhanced search‑and‑download services for the Japanese National Bibliography offered through the new NDL Search (*), through proactive outreach.

We intend to preserve and ensure future access for library materials, which are the shared cultural heritage of the nation. To this end, we will undertake measures for long-term preservation, including digitization of printed materials and the management of a proper environment for preserving and repairing damaged materials.

* In January 2024, we integrated two of our web services— NDL Online and NDL Search—and launched them as the new NDL Search.

Evaluation

We achieved most of our objectives.

Overview and objectives

We will continue to provide remote photoduplication services available by request via the Internet, as well as interlibrary loans and reference services via public and university libraries. Around June 2024, we will launch the "Remote photoduplication service (PDF file download)" in accordance with the enforcement of the Act Partially Amending Japan's Copyright Act (Act No. 52 of 2021). The service will send a part of a work to a registered user via the Internet at the user's request. In addition, we will make available a wide range of value-added information, such as articles on the Research Navi and digital exhibitions.

We will strive for the stable operation of NDL Search and continue to work towards further improvements in its usability.

We will continue to work to digitize materials as well as make those for which copyright protection has expired available via the Internet. Moreover, we will continue to provide digitized versions of difficult-to-obtain materials that are not ordinarily available via the Internet to registered users residing in Japan through the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals, as well as to patrons of public or university libraries through the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Libraries.

Furthermore, we will continue to offer browsing, copying, and reference services at the Tokyo Main Library, the Kansai-kan, and the International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL), and taking advantage of online formats, we will also hold events such as exhibitions and lectures.

We will integrate NDL Online and NDL Search to launch a new search system around January 2024.

In cooperation with our affiliated institutions, we will continue to convert academic literature into text data or audio books and collect DAISY and braille data produced by other libraries, and will provide these materials to qualified users via the Internet.

The ILCL will continue to provide children with the opportunity to become familiar with books and libraries through support for the promotion of children's reading activities and services for children.

Evaluation

We achieved most of our objectives.

Overview and objectives

We will continue to provide training and information to libraries in Japan, including by online means, in support of their activities and human resource development, sharing our expertise in library sciences to help improve the operations and services of libraries throughout Japan. We will strengthen cooperative relationships with related domestic institutions through roundtable meetings and other opportunities.

We will continue to participate in the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and other international conferences and interact with other libraries such as the National Library of China and the National Library of Korea, through which we will work to solve problems that are universal to all libraries.

Moreover, we will continue to support comprehensive access to and utilization of information resources in Japan with a variety of data-linkage platforms including NDL Search and Mina Search that access digitized materials or search guides for Japanese libraries.

Evaluation

We achieved most of our objectives.

Overview and objectives

We will increase the volume of digital materials available via the Internet or at local libraries. We will start the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Libraries overseas around April 2024. We will continue to consider and to discuss to provide the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals to those who do not reside in Japan.

We provide full-text data generated from digitized materials for persons with print disabilities, as well as other data for persons with print disabilities, through Mina Search (NDL Materials Search for Persons with Disabilities), which launched in January 2024. We continue to promote the Digital Library Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, which were released in July 2023, to public libraries and other institutions, and to conduct discussions to revise the guidelines. Moreover, we will conduct a summary of the implementation items of the Implementation Plan for Library Services for People with Disabilities 2021-2024 which defines the initiatives NDL should perform as a service for persons with disabilities, and develop the plan for the next term.

Using our accumulated expertise, vast amounts of materials and information will be curated and made available to the general public, including guides to efficient research and introductions to materials about specific fields. In addition, we will introduce effective ways of utilizing full-text data generated from digitized materials.

Evaluation

We interviewed experts about topic of Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals Abroad. We opened the Printing Function of the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Libraries to approved partner libraries overseas in April 2024, and one library was approved to provide its patrons with the function.

We provided about 730,000 new full-text data generated from digitized materials which are available through Mina Search. Moreover, we convened a review meeting composed of experts and concerned bodies and wrote up the Digital Library Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (Draft). We conducted a summary of the Implementation Plan for Library Services for People with Disabilities 2021-2024 and drew up the Implementation Plan for Library Services for People with Disabilities 2025-2029 as the next plan in March 2025.

We held an exhibition "Open, roll, and appear: The world of picture scrolls" at the Tokyo Main Library and Kansai-Kan from October to November 2025. We renewed the search results page of NDL Search to show the Research Navi pages as results which are highly relevant to search words. Moreover, promoting the use of data registered in the Collaborative Reference Database, even for commercial purposes, we make it possible to use the data provided by the NDL without submitting an application that was previously required by following the Terms of Use of Contents of the National Diet Library's Website which stipulates regulations like source citation.

Overview and objectives

We will digitize about 58 million frames of our collection to achieve our vision of making all domestic publications available in digital form. We will also consult with concerned bodies and conduct research for the further utilization of the full-text data generated from digitized materials.

With the cooperation of publishers and other stakeholders, we will work to ensure stable collection of online materials through the E-legal Deposit System of Online Publications, based on which we started the acquisition of priced or Digital Rights Management (DRM)-protected online publications in January 2023. Moreover, we will strive to achieve long-term preservation of digital materials by collecting digital materials of other institutions, converting media that are no longer playable into usable formats, and other initiatives.

Japan Search will connect digital archives across a range of specializations in support of the creation of an environment that enables information and data to be made open and fully utilized.

Evaluation

We digitized about 64 million frames of our collection such as books, magazines, doctoral dissertations, and old materials. Using the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program NDLOCR, which we released as open-source software and have continuously improved, we processed an additional 730,000 materials, bringing the total number of full-text searchable digitized materials to approximately 3.19 million.

Based on the E-Legal Deposit System of Online Publications, we sent requests for legal deposit to 47 academic and scholarly societies, resulting in deposits of over 600 items. Furthermore, utilizing our automated migration system including automatic transfer equipment, we conducted a condition survey of audio CDs published up to 2000 and video DVDs published up to 2015 (a total of 800 discs).

6 aggregators and 39 databases were newly connected to Japan Search. In addition, we co-hosted the "Digital Archive Festival 2024 - Utilization Frontline – "(August 2024) with the Cabinet Office and held a workshop for junior and senior high school students, "Let's enter GIF IT UP! — How to make a GIF animation" (June 2024), and a curation workshop for Japan Search partner institutions (February 2025).