Collections
Collections
The holdings of the National Diet Library are collected through the legal deposit system, purchase, exchange and donation. These collections are separately held in the Tokyo Main Library, the Kansai-kan and the International Library of Children's Literature.
| Tokyo Main Library | Kansai-kan | International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Books | The Tokyo Main Library holds almost all Japanese books which are collected through the legal deposit system. The Tokyo Main Library also holds more than 1.6 million foreign books. | The Kansai-kan holds more than 2.2 million books and its holdings are mainly consisted on academic literature. The Kansai-kan also holds many government and official publications which are hard to get in general book stores. Novels and comics (MANGA) are held in the Tokyo Main Library, not the Kansai-kan. | The ILCL holds more than 400 thousand children's literature and related books. |
| Periodicals | The Tokyo Main Library holds almost all Japanese periodicals which are collected through the legal deposit system. The Tokyo Main Library also holds some foreign periodicals, i.e. annual serials and monograph series. | The Kansai-kan holds about 70 thousand Japanese periodical titles. Almost all of them are much in demand titles and their articles are indexed in the Japanese Periodicals Index. The Kansai-kan also holds 45 thousand foreign periodical titles. These are most of the foreign periodicals held in the NDL. | The ILCL holds about 2 thousand periodical titles on children's literature. |
| Other | There are 9 special materials rooms in the Tokyo Main Library. Special Materials Rooms & Reading Rooms |
The Kansai-kan holds rare materials which are seldom held in public libraries.
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The ILCL holds non-book materials such as KAMISHIBAI and KARUTA. |
The NDL has been digitizing its collections and the NDL provides access via the Internet to copyright cleared materials. Materials under copyright protection are available on the premises at the NDL. Digitalized versions of these materials are available in The National Diet Library Digital Collections. Printed materials which have been digitized are not available for use.