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Brief history of the Japanese National Bibliography

Year and month Description
February 1948 The National Diet Library Law was promulgated (Law No. 5 of 1948).
It stipulated that the National Diet Library (NDL) shall publish a catalog of publications issued within Japan.
October 1948 Publication of 納本月報 (Nohon Geppo) was launched.
This mainly consists of bibliographic information on materials deposited to the NDL.
February 1950 納本月報 was renamed to 国内出版物目録 (Kokunai Shuppanbutsu Mokuroku).
December 1950 Distribution of printed cards was launched.
* Printed cards: Catalog cards with standard bibliographic data printed on them. The distribution continued until March 1998.
May 1951 Publication of 全日本出版物総目録 (Zen Nihon Shuppanbutsu Somokuroku) was launched in an annual format.
With the cooperation of related organizations, it contained catalogs of undeposited publications in addition to materials deposited to the NDL. From the 1961 edition, only materials deposited to the NDL were included.
June 1955 The monthly 国内出版物目録 was changed to the weekly 納本週報 (Nohon Shuho).
January 1981 納本週報 was renamed to 日本全国書誌. 週刊版 (Nihon Zenkoku Shoshi. Shukanban).
April 1981 Distribution of JAPAN/MARC was launched.
* JAPAN/MARC: Machine-readable version of the Japanese National Bibliography.
May 1982 全日本出版物総目録 was renamed to annual 日本全国書誌 (Nihon Zenkoku Shoshi).
* The publication of the annual list ended with only the 1977 edition being published.
January 1988 日本全国書誌. 週刊版 was renamed to weekly 日本全国書誌 (Nihon Zenkoku Shoshi).
April 1988 Distribution of J-BISC was launched.
* J-BISC: CD-ROM version of JAPAN/MARC.
Publication of DVD version was launched in September 2002.
April 1997 Records of foreign publications in Japanese were added to the scope of contents.
March 1999 Records of microforms, packaged digital publications, still image materials, sound recordings, etc., were added to the scope of contents.
April 2002 日本全国書誌ホームページ版 (Japanese National Bibliography Weekly List website version) was launched.
The website version contained HTML files on a weekly basis. The content was the same as weekly 日本全国書誌 in booklet form.
2003 Records of musical scores (single sheet), music recording materials, video materials, maps (single sheet), residential maps, etc., were added to the scope of contents.
March 2007 The National Diet Library Law was amended (Law No. 10 of 2007).
The wording of "publish" was changed to "arrange and offer by methods suitable for the people's use".
June 2007 Publication of the weekly 日本全国書誌 in booklet form was terminated and consolidated into the website version.
October 2010 NDL Search (development version) launched NDL新着図書情報 (NDL New Arrival Book Information) (It was renamed to 新着書誌情報 (New Arrival Bibliographic Information) in April 2012).
NDL Search started to provide bibliographic information on a daily basis within a few days after the material arrived at the NDL.
November 2011 Japanese National Bibliography Weekly List website version was terminated.
January 2012 NDL-OPAC launched the 書誌情報提供サービス (Bibliographic Records Service).
(In December 2012, it was renamed to 全国書誌提供サービス (Japanese National Bibliography).)
* NDL-OPAC: National Diet Library Online Public Access Catalog.
March 2014
  • 全国書誌（電子書籍・電子雑誌編） (Japanese National Bibliography Records of e-Books and e-Periodicals) was launched.
    Bibliographic data of online materials collected by the NDL (digital information published (released) on the internet, etc., which is equivalent to books or serial publications).
  • NDL全国書誌情報 (Data provider "Japanese National Bibliography") was launched through Application Programming Interface (API) offered by NDL Search.
January, 2018 With the renewal of NDL-OPAC, Japanese National Bibliography in NDL-Bib (National Diet Library Bibliographic Records Service) was launched.
April, 2019
  • Free distribution of bibliographic data was launched.
    It became available to anyone without application, regardless of commercial or noncommercial purpose.
  • Weekly distribution of JAPAN/MARC was launched on the NDL website.
December 2020 Due to the termination of NDL-Bib, 全国書誌提供サービス (Japanese National Bibliography) was discontinued.
NDL Search continued the Japanese National Bibliography services through API, etc.
February 2022 Distribution of the complete JAPAN/MARC data was launched.
January 2024 全国書誌データ検索 (Web Japanese National Bibliography (Web JNB)) and 全国書誌（電子書籍・電子雑誌編）データ検索 (Japanese National Bibliography Records of e-Books and e-Periodicals) were launched on NDL Search.

See also the following article on the history of the Japanese National Bibliography.

For more information about the Japanese National Bibliography and how to use it, see "The Japanese National Bibliography (JNB)".

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