2022-2-1 The NDL's Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals to Launch on May 19, 2022

The National Diet Library, Japan, (the NDL) will launch a Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals on May 19, 2022, as described in the Agreement on the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals (December 3, 2021) compiled by the Stakeholder Council for Digitization and Use of Library Materials, which comprises organizations of copyright holders, publishers, and other interested parties in Japan.

With the passing of the Act Partially Amending Japan's Copyright Act (Act No. 52 of 2021), the NDL is now able to transmit digitized versions of out-of-print or otherwise difficult-to-obtain materials to individuals via the Internet. In making this revision of the law, legislators were responding to advances in digitization and networking as well as the current COVID pandemic, all of which have increased the need of researchers, students, and other individuals for digitized materials that can be accessed without physically visiting public facilities such as the NDL, municipal libraries, or university libraries.

Outline of the Service

This service is provided by the NDL as a means of making digitized versions of out-of-print or otherwisedifficult-to-obtain materials available to the general public via the Internet from devices in the home, such as smartphones or personal computers. At first, users will be able only to browse digitized images of materials in the National Diet Library Digital Collections , but we plan to offer print functionality starting in January 2023.

Available content

Content available via the service comprises out-of-print or otherwise difficult-to-obtain materials from the National Diet Library Digital Collections, although materials that the copyright holder has indicated to the NDL are highly likely to become readily available within three months are excluded. As of January 2022, there are about 1.53 million items in the National Diet Library Digital Collections that are currently available only at the NDL and its partner libraries but which will become available via this service.

Who is Eligible

The Service will be available to individual registered users of the NDL who reside in Japan and who have agreed to the Terms of Service for the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals. Please visit the NDL website for more information about user registration at the NDL. The Terms of Service will be available once the service is launched.

• *Please be aware that user registration at the NDL has an expiration date that is automatically extended each time a user logs on to the NDL Online or visits the NDL in person.
• *Please be aware that online registered users who have not upgraded their status to individual registered user will unable to use this service. The procedure to become an individual registered user can be completed at any time either by postal mail or by visiting the NDL. Please refer to the User Registration page on the NDL website for detailed information about how to register as or to upgrade your current status to individual registered user.

Online registration procedure

Concurrently with the start of the service in May 2022, the NDL will also launch a new registration procedure for individual registered users that may be completed via the Internet. This procedure will be quite convenient for anyone who is not already an individual registered user and wishes either to newly register or upgrade from online registered user.

• *The user registration process is expected to be very busy immediately before and after the launch of the service. If you are not yet an individual registered user, please consider completing the registration procedure by postal mail or by visiting the NDL in advance of the launch of the service.