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2022-5-19 The NDL's Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals to Launch

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

With the enforcement 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.

The NDL's Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals

Outline of the Service

This service is provided by the NDL as a means of making digitized versions of out-of-print or otherwise difficult-to-obtain materials available to the general public via the Internet from devices such as personal computers or smartphones. Although users will initially be able only to browse digitized images of materials in the National Diet Library Digital Collections , the NDL plans to provide 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 May 2022, the National Diet Library Digital Collections comprises about 1.52 million items that have been available only at the NDL and its partner libraries but which now become available via this service. This includes about 550,000 books that were acquired by the NDL prior to 1969 as well as about 10,000 periodicals published during or after the Meiji period that are at least five years old and are not commercially available.

Who is Eligible

The Service is available to official 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: official registration at the NDL.

  • 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 simple registered users (formerly known as online registered uses) will not be able to use this service until they upgraded their status to official registered users. The procedure to become an official registered user can be completed at any time either online 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 official registered users.

Online registration procedure

Concurrent with the start of the service on May 19, 2022, the NDL also launched a new registration procedure for official registered users that may be completed via the Internet. This procedure will be quite convenient for anyone who is not already an official registered user and wishes either to newly register or upgrade from simple registered user.

  • The user registration process is expected to be very busy immediately after the launch of the service. If you are not yet an official registered user, please consider completing the registration procedure by visiting the NDL.

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