Standards for Digital Information

The National Diet Library (NDL) has applied or maintained the standards of digital information technology for collecting, preserving, and providing access to digital resources, aiming at the efficient management of digital resources and improvement of interoperability between internal and external systems.

• Resource Description Standards
• Linked Open Data (LOD)
• International Standard Identifiers
• Digitization of Library Materials
• Usability and Web Accessibility
• Documents on Standards for Digital Information
• Contact for inquiries about Standards for Digital Information

The NDL has maintained a description metadata standard, "National Diet Library Dublin Core Metadata Description (DC-NDL)."

• National Diet Library Dublin Core Metadata Description (DC-NDL)

The DC-NDL is compliant with the recommendations of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) such as "DCMI Metadata Terms," "Singapore Framework" and "Guidelines for Dublin Core Application Profiles."

The DC-NDL is implemented in the integrated search system "NDL Search," "NDL Great East Japan Earthquake Archive" and so on, as a common communicative metadata format.

The NDL uses several different cataloging standards depending on the type of material as well as the time of cataloging. Please refer to the following link for details.

• List of Applied Rules

Japan Search is a national platform for aggregating metadata of digital resources and is operated by the National Diet Library, Japan, in cooperation with several other organizations in Japan under policies established by the Working Group Steering Committee of the Digital Archives Japan Promotion Committee.
Japan Search provides metadata from digital resources both in its original format as transferred by the data provider and in a converted format based on a schema called the Japan Search RDF (JPS-RDF). JPS-RDF is an RDF schema designed to enhance universal utilization of metadata via SPARQL Endpoint. The NDL maintains the JPS-RDF schema. Please refer to the following link for more information on the JPS-RDF schema.

• An Overview of the JPS-RDF Schema: Data that is obtainable from JPS SPARQL endpoints

The NDL provides some kinds of data as Linked Open Data (LOD). Please see the following pages for further details about our LOD:

• Linked Open Data (LOD)
  Overview of data source, download, terms of use, metadata vocabulary, etc.
• Using Linked Open Data (LOD)
  Examples of utilization
• Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) for NDL resources
  Overview of URIs for resources created or provided by the NDL.
• Free Data Service
  The dataset files are available for download. There are no restrictions on the use of these datasets.

• Japanese National Centre for ISSN
  International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN) comprise an international numbering system for serial publications. The NDL operates the National Centre for ISSN in Japan.

• Japanese National Agency for ISIL
  International Standard Identifier for Libraries and Related Organizations (ISIL) are identifiers which can be allocated to libraries and other relevant organizations, such as archives and museums. ISO 15511 specifies that the ISIL structure be administrated by national allocation agencies in each country. The NDL operates the National Agency for ISIL in Japan.

• DOI registration by the NDL (Japanese)
  Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) are names assigned to entities used on digital networks. The NDL is one of the board members of the Japan Link Center, a Registration Agency which registers and manages DOIs in Japan.

The NDL, in digitizing its materials, compiles the handbook for the purpose of ensuring the quality of data and enhancing the efficiency of digitization by establishing a standard through sharing common specifications and technology.

• National Diet Library Handbook for Digitization of Materials (Japanese)

For the NDL's activities of usability and web accessibility, please see Web Accessibility.

The NDL provides Japanese translations of English versions of standards for digital information. These translations are available at the following link.

• Japanese Translations of Standards for Digital Information

International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) is an international as well as disciplinary identifier assigned to individuals and organizations related to creative works. It is maintained by an organization comprising national libraries and standard bibliographic organizations, but as of August 2022, there are no Japanese organizations participating.
The NDL conducted a questionnaire survey of national libraries and other organizations from around the world to obtain detailed information on their motives for introducing ISNI and what changes in the management of data about authors of domestic publications or in the creation of bibliographic sources have come about due to the introduction of ISNI.

• Result of a questionnaire survey (PDF: 151KB)

Standardization Section, Digital Information Distribution Division,
Digital Information Department, National Diet Library
E-mail: standardization