Activity Performance Evaluation in FY2025
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 performed Activity Performance Evaluations 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.
Since FY2025 was the final fiscal year of Vision 2021-2025, we comprehensively evaluated our general activities and initiatives activities over the five fiscal years from FY2021 to FY2025.
All evaluation results are as follows:
Evaluation details for Activity Performance Evaluation in FY2025 (only in Japanese)(PDF/498KB)
A summary of evaluation results
General activities 1 - Supporting the National Diet
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 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.
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.
Evaluation
We achieved our objectives.
General activities 2 - Acquiring, cataloging, and preserving materials and information
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 be acquired based on the law.
We will continue to compile databases of bibliographic information for domestically published books and magazines, such as the Japanese Periodicals Index, which are made available to the public via the Internet.
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.
Evaluation
We achieved only some of our objectives.
General activities 3 - Providing access to information resources
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. In addition, we will make available a wide range of value-added information, such as research guides (Research Navi) and digital exhibitions.
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 provide digitized versions of difficult-to-obtain materials that are not ordinarily available via the Internet through the Digitized Contents Transmission Service.
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.
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 only some of our objectives.
General activities 4 - Cooperation with affiliated institutions
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.
Through participation in international activities such as the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), we will interact with national libraries and related institutions overseas to address universal issues related to libraries, while promoting cooperative and collaborative projects with institutions sharing common goals.
Moreover, we will provide a variety of data-linkage platforms that access digitized materials or search guides for Japanese libraries, with the intent to support comprehensive access to and utilization of information resources in Japan.
Evaluation
We achieved most of our objectives.
Initiatives activities 1 - Achieving universal access
Overview and objectives
We will increase the volume of digital materials available via the Internet or at local libraries. To achieve this, we will promote copyright clearance and consensus building among stakeholders.
We will promote the collection, discoverability, and provision of accessible materials for patrons with print disabilities. In addition, we will support the production of text data that is easy for such patrons to use.
Using our accumulated expertise, vast amounts of materials and information will be curated and made available to the general public, including guides for efficient research and introductions to materials about specific fields.
Evaluation
To transmit to individuals digitized versions of out-of-print or otherwise difficult-to-obtain materials, we formulated the terms of the Agreement on Transmission to Individuals of Digitized Contents by the National Diet Library in agreement with the Stakeholder Council, made necessary regulatory and system revisions, and then launched the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals in May 2022. We conducted interviews with experts regarding the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals Abroad. Under the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Libraries Overseas, we launched the photoduplication service in April 2024.
To promote the introduction of accessible e-books to libraries, we convened a review meeting composed of experts and relevant organizations, produced a report summarizing the deliberations, and released the Digital Library Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 in July 2023 and the Digital Library Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 in May 2025. We began full-scale conversion of academic literature into text data in FY2021. Following the release of the beta version of "Mina Search" (NDL Materials Search for Persons with Disabilities) in March 2023, the service was officially launched in January 2024. Through Mina Search, we began providing approximately 2.47 million full-text data items generated from digitized materials for persons with print disabilities.
In July 2022, we renewed Research Navi to consolidate its content and improve usability and accessibility. We strengthened integration between the new NDL Search and Research Navi so that highly relevant research guides are displayed on search results pages. We also strove to enrich the content of digital exhibitions.
Initiatives activities 2 - Developing a permanent national digital information infrastructure
Overview and objectives
Aiming for a future where all domestic publications can be read digitally, we will digitize more than 1 million items of our collection over these five years. We will also process them into full-text data to build foundational data for search and machine learning.
We will launch the institutional collection of priced or DRM-protected e-books and work to ensure stable collection with the cooperation of authors and publishers. 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
From FY2021 to the end of FY2025, we digitized approximately 2.38 million items. Furthermore, we generated full-text data from digitized materials using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) processing, making them full-text searchable in the NDL Digital Collections renewed in December 2022. Out-of-copyright full-text data was made available through the experimental system Next Digital Library, and the experimental service NDL Ngram Viewer, which visualizes the frequency of words and phrases by publication era using full-text data, was released in May 2022. Proceeding with OCR program development, we released NDLOCR in April 2022, NDLkotenOCR in January 2023, NDLkotenOCR-Lite in November 2024, and NDLOCR-Lite in February 2026. To support the development of Large Language Models (LLMs), we provided the National Institute of Informatics with URL lists of files archived in WARP, and OCR-generated full-text data from digitized images of official publications.
Toward implementing the legal deposit of commercially available e-books and e-magazines, in addition to briefings for relevant organizations, we coordinated regulatory revisions, operational workflows, certification of exempt repositories, and metadata linkage, launching institutional collection in January 2023. Following the launch, we strove for stable collection by requests for legal deposit to academic societies. Full-scale collection of materials that are not held by the NDL and are difficult to obtain but have been digitized by other institutions began in July 2022. In FY2022, we published a study report based on the results of a survey on long-term preservation of digital materials in which about 3,000 domestic institutions gave valid responses. We also undertook initiatives to inherit data from closing disaster-related digital archives and published it in the National Diet Library Great East Japan Earthquake Archive.
We continuously connected new partners to Japan Search and steadily increased the cumulative amount of data. Furthermore, we promoted its utilization by releasing the My Gallery and Japan Search Labo features and by holding workshops for partner organizations.