Facts and Stats About National Diet Library (Japan’s National Library and More)

The National Diet Library has shared a bunch of statistics (from 2012 annual report) about the library in an English language article appearing in the latest issue of the library’s newsletter.
Here’s Some of What’s Included:

• Budget: about 19.363 billion yen ($189.7/USD)

• Number of employees: 890 people

• Collections: 39,430,946 items

• On-site photoduplication requests: 1,099,547 cases

• 57,319 web site visit per day on average

• Digitized Contents
  • Available via the NDL website: 476,112 items
  • Available only on the premises: 1,796,869 items

Direct to the Complete Article
From the National Librarian’s Welcome Message:

The National Diet Library was established based on the National Diet Library Law in February 1948, as an institution to serve the newly installed Diet assembly and the nation in the dynamic age of post-war reconstruction. The preamble of the NDL Law, which states that it was “hereby established as a result of the firm conviction that truth makes us free and with the object of contributing to international peace and the democratization of Japan as promised in our Constitution” denotes the underlying ethos of the NDL. The Law also stipulates the still relevant institutional mission that it assists the Diet members as the parliamentary library, and the whole nation as the national library.

Filed under: Libraries, National Libraries, News, Reports