The National Diet Library of Japan was established in February 1948 and is affiliated with the National Diet of Japan. It is the national library of Japan and the largest public library in the country. The library has rich collections, mainly collecting constitutional documents, laws, parliamentary documents, scientific and technological documents, map documents, music documents, ancient books and Asian documents, etc. In 1998, the collection included 6.88 million books, 150,000 journals and newspapers, 6.12 million microfilms, 430,000 records, 320,000 doctoral theses, and 400,000 maps. The organization of the library is composed of the Central Library, the Diet Branch Library, the branch Ueno Library, the branch Toyo Bunko, and 35 branch libraries in the administrative and judicial departments. It currently has 851 employees.
On February 9, 1948, Japan promulgated the "National Diet Library Act", which stipulates that the library will use the collected books and other materials to assist members of Congress in completing their official duties, as well as to the administrative and judicial departments, as well as The purpose of providing library services to Japanese nationals as prescribed by law. Therefore, serving the Congress is the museum’s top priority and the focus of the Congress Hall’s services.
In order to organizationally guarantee services to the Congress, the Congress Hall has established a special agency investigation and legislative review bureau in accordance with the law, and is equipped with specialized investigators and other senior experts in various disciplines. Its tasks are:
1. Upon request, analyze and evaluate bills pending in the committees of the two houses of Congress and cases submitted to Congress by the cabinet, make recommendations to the committees of the two houses and provide information that can be used as decision-making The basis of the case.
2. According to the requirements or the requirements that may be raised in the future, proactively collect legislative materials and related materials, classify, analyze, translate, edit, prepare indexes, abstracts, reports, etc., and make other preparations . The information selected and submitted must not be biased by parties or officials, and provide useful information for the two houses, committees and members.
3. At the request of committees or members, assist committees and members in drafting bills during the preparation stage of legislation.
4. On the premise of ensuring that the needs of the two houses of Congress, committees and members are met, the collected information will be provided to the executive and judicial departments and general readers.
The Bureau of Investigation and Legislative Examination had 5 sections with 48 people when the library was built. With the continuous expansion of business and the strengthening of the function of serving the Congress, it has developed to now have 1 comprehensive coordination room, 11 special investigation rooms and 14 sections, with more than 130 staff members.
In serving the National Assembly, the National Assembly Building is centered on the Investigation and Legislation Bureau and the National Assembly Branch, and is completed jointly with the cooperation of the entire library. The services provided are primarily legislative inquiry services and library services.
Legislative investigation services include commissioned investigations and forecast investigations. Commissioned investigation is to conduct analysis and evaluation of bills and cases based on the entrustment and requirements of members of Congress, to investigate national affairs issues, domestic and foreign events, and various systems in many aspects such as politics, economy, and society, to prepare bill outlines, and to provide information services wait. This type of investigation occupies a large proportion of the Congress Hall's legislative investigation services. For example, the matters commissioned for investigation in 1997 focused on issues such as political ethics, the reorganization of central ministries and agencies, Japan-US defense cooperation guidelines, financial system turbulence and stabilization countermeasures, industrial structure reform, and the pharmaceutical industry. The total number of cases was 29,553, of which There were 2,365 oral responses, 24,407 documents provided (loans, copies, etc.), and 2,781 written responses (investigation reports, etc.).
Predictive investigation is to conduct predictive research and conduct preliminary investigations on matters that will be considered by Congress in the future. For routine investigations, a basic investigation business plan is formulated and implemented every year. In 1997, a total of 116 forecast surveys were completed as planned. In basic investigation work, some important topics are completed simultaneously by multiple investigation rooms and sections. For example, the survey on the current status and prospects of regional and economic exchanges in the Sea of ??Japan started in 1996 and is planned to be completed in three years.
When conducting forecast surveys, the Bureau of Investigation and Legislative Inspection holds various explanatory meetings as needed and invites relevant experts from the society to express their opinions.
For example, in 1997, 15 such meetings were held. Listening to experts' arguments in a targeted manner has become an indispensable and important part of the forecast investigation process.
The Investigation and Legislative Research Bureau publishes 10 types of documents, and some of the results of the legislative research service are published in these publications. There are monthly "Reference Consulting", irregular periodicals "Investigation and Intelligence-ISSUE BRIEF-", bi-monthly "Overseas Information Guide", and bi-monthly "Foreign Legislation", which are distributed to members of Congress, the headquarters of each political party and the Secretariat of both Houses of Representatives. In addition, he also edits the "Index of Japanese Laws and Regulations", "General Index of Diet Proceedings", as well as promotional materials and work reference materials.
In order to better carry out legislative investigation services, the Bureau of Investigation and Legislative Examination continues to strengthen the infrastructure of the service. In addition to the collection of books in the library, it also specializes in collecting legislative materials, parliamentary materials and statutory materials for investigation purposes. Introduce domestic and foreign databases and strive to systematize business information. Developed a system for providing proceedings of Congress. In order to enhance services to the Congress, the development of a comprehensive congressional consultation system began in 1996. This system applies the latest information and communication technology to reconstruct investigation operations and electronically digitizes the information required and predicted in government investigation activities. It is planned to take three years to equip machines and equipment, database the information and automate the process from receiving congressional inquiries to responding, so as to make services more efficient and faster.
In order to facilitate members of Congress to go directly to the library to conduct research and use the collection materials, the National Congress Building has set up a reading room and research room dedicated to members of Congress. The Members' Reading Room has 30 seats and contains minutes of meetings of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Senate, minutes of committee meetings, communiqués, official newspapers, regulations and other parliamentary and legal materials. Various reference books, maps, periodicals, newspapers, our library’s publications, etc. Books written by members of Congress are also displayed here as a library of members' writings for reading. In 1997, 258 members used the reading room, read 2,661 volumes of materials, and lent 884 volumes of materials to 212 members.
The Councilor’s Research Office has 20 personal research rooms, 3 general research rooms and 1 special research room. In 1997, there were 1,506 members of parliament utilizing the research office.
In addition to providing legislative investigation services, various departments within the library provide extensive library services such as document reading, loaning, copying, and reference consultation to members of Congress and relevant personnel of the Congress. Taking 1999 as an example, the library completed 29,656 commissioned investigations (including 28,573 commissioned investigations from Congress) and 115 forecast investigations. Library services for members of Congress and members of Congress include loaning 38,464 volumes of materials, copying 7,091 items, and consulting and processing 5,339 items.
The National Congress Branch is located in the National Assembly Building, so it is on the front line of serving Congress. The library contains proceedings of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Senate, committee minutes, motions and other proceedings, as well as general books focusing on social sciences, various reference books, domestic and foreign journals and newspapers, etc. It provides library services to members of the National Assembly and relevant personnel of the National Assembly quickly, focusing on materials and the latest information that are useful for deliberation of national affairs. For newly acquired books, periodicals and newspapers, we compile and publish "New Books" and "Clipping Materials and Article Lists" and distribute them to parliamentarians and political party lounges for easy use. In recent years, due to the various changes in the political and social situation, inquiries have been asked to cover a wide range of matters and the number of cases requiring immediate responses has increased. In order to meet the demand, the National Congress Branch Library uses collection materials, various databases of the National Congress Library and external databases to quickly and accurately handle consultations and provide services. In order to assist administrative, judicial and other government agencies in completing their official duties, NDL provides library services to these departments. This is mainly accomplished through 35 branch libraries located in various provincial offices and the Supreme Court. The Central Library, with the Library Cooperation Department as the center, forms a network with each branch library to collaborate with each other. It also provides direct services to employees of administrative and judicial departments.
This service is mainly provided through reference consultation, material reading, loaning, etc. For inquiries from administrative and judicial departments, each branch library sometimes needs to cooperate with the central library and other branch libraries to handle inquiries simultaneously.
The central library and branch libraries provide convenience to each other through the interlibrary loan system to meet needs. In 1999, the utilization status of each branch library was as follows: 165,822 items (33 libraries) were consulted, 537,886 readers (33 libraries), and 857,537 volumes (24 libraries) were read. This service is provided at the Central Library, the International Children's Library (formerly Ueno Library), and the branch Toyo Bunko. The service targets include various libraries, local public organizations, research institutions, enterprises, etc., as well as academic researchers and other personnel. Regardless of nationality, anyone can visit the library to read. The qualification for use is adults over 20 years old. The main readers of the International Children's Library are minors under the age of 18.
According to the regulations of the library, except for members of Congress and congressional staff, the collection materials are not directly loaned to individuals and can only be read in the library, but can be accessed through various public libraries and university libraries. Libraries and professional libraries interloan with NDL for indirect borrowing and use. Reading places open to general readers, some of which have certain restrictions and require special procedures for use, such as general research rooms, constitutional government reference rooms, classical books reference rooms, audio-visual reference rooms, etc.
The library's services for general readers are divided into services for readers who come to the library and readers who do not come to the library. Its service content is: for readers who come to the library, provide reading, copying, reference consultation, etc.; for those who do not come to the library, answer telephone or written inquiries, lend documents to the library, mail copied materials, etc. In order to provide services to non-library readers more effectively, the NDL-ILL system began to be used in 1997 for interlibrary loans and to accept requests for mailed copies of materials.
According to 1999 statistics, the Central Library lent 11,976 volumes of materials (interlibrary loan), and accepted 30,557 copies of materials by mail or fax from non-visiting readers, and 66 telephone consultations were made. , 703 cases, and 53,371 written consultations.
In 1999, the library was open for 232 days, with 419,880 readers, and the average daily number of readers was 1,810. To provide readers with reading materials, the book cashier provides 503,073 kinds, the periodical cashier provides 961,725 ??kinds, and 12 special reference rooms provide 416,925 kinds. In addition, 298,254 pieces of information were copied and 183,391 pieces of consultation and answers were provided.
NDL has been producing audiotapes of the collection’s academic literature since 1975, which can be borrowed through the Braille Library. In 1981, the National Union Catalog of Braille Books and Recording Books began to be issued. To promote the use of materials inside and outside the library, dozens of bibliographies, indexes and thematic catalogs have been compiled.