1. 1 Answer to the Questions and Comments on the Services of the National Diet Library NCC 2007 Open Meeting Friday, March 23, 2007 Nobuya AIHARA Reader Service Planning Division, Public Services Department, National Diet Library, Japan

2. 2 NDL-OPAC (1) 24/7 service –There are some restrictions in extending operational hours of the existing NDL-OPAC system. –We will consider 24/7 service in discussions of the next system plan. –At the same time, we will continue to improve the existing NDL-OPAC system.

3. 3 NDL-OPAC (2) Termination of the JiBOOKS service –JiBOOKS is a trial service offered by the National Institute for Japanese Language, and will be terminated by the Institute. –We judged it difficult to succeed this service. –You are asked to install Japanese font and input. See: http://www.jsnet.org/software/

4. 4 Zassi Kiji Sakuin (1) Retrospective Conversion of Unindexed Volumes / Articles (including earlier than 1948) –As a result of our consideration up to FY2003, we have decided to give priority to retrospective conversion of the indexed data in the book-form Japanese Periodicals Index (Science and Technology) into the NDL- OPAC and have already been doing this. –For the periodicals which we did not index, we have not yet formulated any concrete plan.

5. 5 Zassi Kiji Sakuin (2) Collaboration with the NII to improve the Zassi Kiji Sakuin –The NII and the NDL are not cooperating each other specially to improve the Japanese Periodicals Index.

6. 6 Sogo Mokuroku Network System More Data Display of Records... –The primary objective of this system is to provide holdings information of Japanese public libraries. –To provide detailed bibliographic information is not included as a goal of the system. –That is why we do not intend to make the system able to display more bibliographic data. –Although we are planning to renovate our library system in and after FY2008, we will not provide more data than this current system does.

7. 7 Digital Archive Portal (1) Goal of the Prototype System –We get feedback from the public. –We examine usability and technical aspects of the portal as follows: Availability of integrated search service; Methods and techniques necessary for integrated search service; Linkage specifications including metadata formats to obtain data from more than one system and communication protocol; Functions to enhance user-friendliness; Other examination of general functions.

8. 8 Digital Archive Portal (2) Release of a Full-Fledged System –We have been preparing for a full-fledged system, which will be opened to the public by July 2007. –In the full-fledged system, the contents will be extended, and following functions will be put into practice. Personalizing feature; Graphical display of dictionary data; English page –We aim to construct the comprehensive portal site navigating users widely and fully to digital resources in Japan.

9. 9 Digital Archive Portal (3) Plans to include more Japanese Institutional Repositories (IR) –We are currently discussing collaborating with the JuNii of the NII, which aggregates and provides intellectual resources held by universities. –This collaboration will make it possible to search widely and comprehensively IRs of various universities. –We have also considered collaborating with the CiNii of the NII, J-STAGE and Journal@rchive of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and others.

10. 10 International Services (1) Possibility of Expanding our International Loan Service –We will consider your requests when we review the overall current public services during FY2007. –However, there are the following reasons that make the expansion of services difficult: Japan's copyright law and regulations set a limit to expanding DDS. There are an increasing number of materials damaged from overuse in recent years. As the NDL hardly has duplicate copies for lending at all, we need to keep a balance between the use and preservation of materials for future years. Materials published before 1948 are especially deteriorated.

11. 11 International Services (2) USD Payment System for Photoduplication Service –As we have recognized that the services for overseas users need to be improved in many ways, we will consider your requests as well as other improvements. –However, it may take some time to make changes in terms of legal system and library's operations so as to realize such improvements.

12. 12 Cataloging: Name Authority Name Authority Records for Ready Consultation on the Web –We have no specific plan to make the NDL authority records available on the web. –In Japan, from the perspective of personal information protection, the private information that a library record and provide should be handled appropriately. For this reason, authority records have many issues to be discussed.

13. 13 Online Workshop Plan of our Online Workshops in FY2007 –We will also offer our online workshops to librarians overseas. –We will provide the following program: Basic Preservations of Japanese Materials New program: Basic Digitization Introducing Japanese Rare Books –We will announce via our website and by other means.

14. 14 Thank you for your attention.