(Dec 2021) News from National Diet Library, Japan:
Acquisition under the current E-Legal Deposit System
Since 2013, the National Diet Library (NDL) has been collecting digital information made available to the public by private publishers, which we considered to be equivalent to books or serials (online publications).
Digital information stored with specific codes (ISBN, ISSN, DOI) or with specific formats (EPUB,PDF,DAISY) is considered suitable for acquisition. However, not all online publications are being acquired under the E-Legal Deposit System.
Regarding online publications that are available for a charge or protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) deliberations by the Legal Deposit System Council (comprised of researchers, lawyers, publishers, and other experts knowledgeable about the publishing industry) on compensation for submission via the E-Legal Deposit System were inconclusive, so publishers were exempted from obligations to submit their publications in accordance with the National Diet Library Law and its subordinate regulations.
The Council’s conclusion after 10 years of discussions
In March 2021, the Council reached a conclusion after 10 years of discussions and submitted its report to the Director of the NDL. The essentials are as follow.
In principle, no compensation for acquisition is required. However, non-monetary incentives, such as proof of acceptance of materials and a data backup function that provides free copies to providers of materials with the permission of rights holders, are important.
For the purpose of use and long-term preservation at the NDL, files will be collected without DRM even if they are distributed with DRM in the market. The current system, for the exclusion from the scope of acquisition of online publications archived by repositories which have prospects for long-term preservation, will be continued.
When repositories operated by commercial organizations are considered to fall outside the scope of acquisition, they must be checked in advance from the perspective of long-term continuity, ensuring use, and preserving content, and the prevention of content dissipation and
metadata linkage must be guaranteed by a memorandum of understanding.
For the complete systematic acquisition of online publications
In response to the report, the NDL is rushing to prepare for the launch of the complete systematic acquisition of online publications in January 2023. In fiscal year 2021, the NDL will design the details of the system and adjust its operation.
