For developers (Information on technology related to data transmission services for persons with print disabilities)

The data transmission service for persons with print disabilities, etc., is a service to provide data prepared for people who have difficulties in reading standard printed materials due to visual impairment, etc., through Mina Search (NDL Material Search for Persons with Disabilities).

This web page provides information necessary for system development using data transmission services for persons with print disabilities, etc., such as creating applications that meet the needs of those individuals. If you have any questions, please contact us using the contact information provided at the end of the page.

Please see the pages below for the content of the data transmission services for persons with print disabilities, etc. and the amount of data offered.

• Data transmission services for persons with print disabilities

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 Terminology
  • 1.2 Overview of data circulation for persons with print disabilities in Japan-The National Diet Library and Sapie Library
• 2. Metadata
  • 2.1 Request
  • 2.2 Response
• 3. Content
  • 3.1 Content types/formats and usage
  • 3.2 Directory structure of content files
  • 3.3 Content acquisition
• 4. Necessary procedures and considerations for using metadata and conten
  • 4.1 Usage of metadata (Application Programming Interface (API) of NDL Search)
  • 4.2 Use of content
• 5. Contact information

Persons with print disabilities, etc.

Terminology defined in Article 37 (3) of the Copyright Act. Persons who have difficulty using visual works (paper books) in their original form due to visual impairment, physical disability, and dyslexia. Almost synonymous with persons with print disability.

Data for persons with print disabilities

Data for persons with print disabilities is obtained by converting printed books and magazines into formats that can be read by persons with print disabilities These include audio books (sound recording), braille books (translated into braille text), and text data. That is produced for persons with print disabilities in accordance with the restriction on rights in Article 37 of the Japanese Copyright Act. The NDL produces such materials as well as collects materials prepared by public libraries, university libraries, and other institutions and makes them available to the public via the NDL Data Transmission Services for persons with print disabilities.

Data transmission services for persons with print disabilities

A service that transmits data for persons with print disabilities produced or collected by the NDL to persons with print disabilities, etc., who are registered with the NDL or with libraries approved by the NDL. This service is offered based on the NDL material transmission service for persons with print disabilities and lending rules (the National Diet Library Rule No. 6 of 2013). Use by developers for development purposes may be exceptionally permitted as "specified separately" in Article 1 of the rule.

For an overview of data circulation for persons with print disabilities in Japan, including the NDL and the Sapie Library, please see the overview of data circulation for persons with print disabilities in Japan―NDL and Sapie Library (PDF: 0.2MB) (in Japanese)

Application Programming Interface (API) of NDL Search makes metadata search and harvesting available.

The specifications of the API of NDL Search can be found in API specifications (in Japanese). This webpage focuses on supplementary information about this service. Please look at it along with the API specifications.

2.1.1 Data type and corresponding data provider

The data types and the corresponding data providers are listed below.

2.1.2 Examples of requests

Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU)

• https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&recordSchema=dcndl&query=dpid=ndl-dl-daisy AND anywhere=プロ野球 AND from=2018

Displays in DCNDL format material that was originally published during or after 2018 and includes the keyword "プロ野球".

• https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&query=dpid=ndl-dl-daisy AND title=図書館&mediatype=mina-text

Displays in DC format text data containing the keyword "図書館" in its title.

OpenSearch (Creates a URL containing a SearchRetrieve request and retrieves the result in RSS 2.0 format)

• https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/opensearch?dpid=ndl-dl-daisy&title=心情の敵対者としての精神

Searches for materials with the title "心情の敵対者としての精神".

• https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/opensearch?dpid=ndl-dl-daisy&anywhare=ことわざ&digitized_publisher=国立国会図書館

Searches for material produced by the National Diet Library that includes the keyword "ことわざ" in its metadata.

OpenURL (Rreturns a result on the screen (HTML) for a request issued in a URL)

• https://mina.ndl.go.jp/api/openurl?ndl_dpid=ndl-dl-daisy&au=夏目漱石

Searches Mina Search for data with authors that include "夏目漱石".

• https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/openurl?ndl_dpid=ndl-dl-daisy&any=ことわざ&mediatype=mina-daisy

Searches the NDL Online for DAISY data containing the keyword "ことわざ".

OAI-PMH List Records (Acquisition of metadata for all items)

• https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/oaipmh?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=dcndl&set=ndl-dl-daisy&from=2024-04-15&until=2024-04-20

Acquires metadata updated between 2024-04-15 and 2024-04-20 in DC-NDL format.

• https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/oaipmh?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&set=ndl-dl-daisy&from=2024-04-01&until=2024-04-10

Acquires metadata updated between 2024-04-01 and 2024-04-10 in OAI_DC format.

OAI-PMH GetRecord (Acquisition of metadata for a specific item)

• https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/oaipmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dcndl&identifier=oai:ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp:R100000073-I12970745

Acquires metadata with the ID "R100000073-I12970745" in dcndl format.

2.2.1 Data examples

These are examples for each returned data format. The followings are examples of DC-NDL (RDF) of the same data.

• Data example　DC-NDL (RDF) format * Example of OAI-PMH
• Data example DC format * Example of SRU
• Data example OAI_DC format (OAI-PMH) * Example of OAI-PMH

Examples for each data type are as follows. The following are all examples of DC-NDL (RDF) in OAI-PMH. Please see "View page source," etc.

• DAISY audio
• DAISY audio & text
• DAISY text
• EPUB text
• Epub audio & text
• PDF files
• MS Word (.docx) files
• Plain text (.txt) files
• Braille data

2.2.2 Characteristic output items

The characteristic response items in data transmission services for persons with print disabilities, etc. are as follows.

For more information on the DC-NDL format, please see:

• DC-NDL (RDF) Format specification (in Japanese)

Types/formats of content and usage (downloading and streaming) provided are as follows. The type of content can be determined by the metadata "Recording format (no data type)".

DAISY audio, DAISY audio & text

After decompressing content files which had been compressed in ZIP format, the directory structure is as follows.

XXXXXXX/(The title of the DAISY book is used as the folder name.)
    ├─discinfo.html
    ├─abcdefg/(Folder where DAISY book content file is stored. The folder is named arbitrarily by the producer and is alphanumeric only.)
    │  │
    │  ├─ncc.html
    │  ├─p00001.mp3 (sound file of a DAISY book. The file is named arbitrarily by the producer and is alphanumeric only.)
    │  ├─p00002.mp3
　                  ︙
    │  ├─p00001.smil (SMIL file of a DAISY book. The file is named arbitrarily by the producer and is alphanumeric only.)
    │  ├─p00002.smil
　                  ︙

DAISY text

XXXXXXX/(The title of the DAISY book is used as the folder name.)
    ├─abcdefg/ (Folder where DAISY book content file is stored. The folder is named arbitrarily by the producer and is alphanumeric only.)
    │  │
    │  ├─abcdefg.opf (Package file. The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only. The file name is often the same as the folder name in the upper hierarchy.)
    │  ├─abcdefg.ncx (Navigation control file. The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only. The file name is often the same as the folder name in the upper hierarchy.)
    │  ├─abcdefg.xsl (XSLT stylesheet. The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only. The file name is often the same as the folder name in the upper hierarchy. )
    │  ├─abcdefg.res (Resource file. The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only. The file name is often the same as the folder name in the upper hierarchy. )
    │  ├─ptk00001.xml (DAISY book content file. The file is named arbitrarily by the producer and is alphanumeric only.)
    │  ├─ptk00002.xml
　                  ︙
    │  ├─ptk00001.smil (SMIL file of a DAISY book. The file is named arbitrarily by the producer and is alphanumeric only.)
    │  ├─ptk00002.smil
                    ︙

After decompressing content files which had been compressed in ZIP format, the directory structure is as follows

EPUB

The download file is in epub format and is a single file.

PDF files, MS Word (.docx) files, Plain Text (.txt) files

After decompressing content files which had been compressed in ZIP format, the directory structure is as follows

XXXXXXX/(The title of the original book is used as the folder name.)
    ├─abcdefg01.txt (The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only.)
    ├─abcdefg02.txt (The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only.)
    ├─abcdefg03.txt (The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only.)
                ︙

Braille data

After decompressing content files which had been compressed in ZIP format, the directory structure is as follows. The following is an example in BES format.

XXXXXXX/(The title of the original book is used as the folder name.)
    ├─abcdefg01.bes (The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only.)
    ├─abcdefg02.bes (The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only.)
    ├─abcdefg03.bes (The file is named arbitrarily by the producer with alphanumeric characters only.)
                ︙

Contents are produced based on the restriction of rights in Article 37 of the Copyright Act, and can only be used by persons who are registered with the NDL as persons with print disabilities. Users will need to log in to the Mina search with user ID for persons with print disabilities, etc. to use these contents.

After logging in, users can acquire content by accessing the download URL/streaming URL in the metadata.

The download URL and streaming URL of content are described in "rdf: resource" attribute of the "rdfs: seeAlso (URL of providers of bibliographies in the detailed screen)" tag in metadata. Downloading or streaming will start when users access these URLs.

Whether or not streaming is provided can be determined by the presence or absence of the "rdfs: seeAlso (URL of providers of bibliographies in the detailed screen)" tag that describes the streaming URL. If there is a streaming URL, streaming is provided.

About download URL/streaming URL in metadata

XXXXXXX contains a unique number for each content.

[Download URL]

The URL contains the string "download".

[Streaming URL]

The URL contains the string "streaming".

Specific example (Sound DAISY data of "ファインマン物理学.1")

• NDL Search Bibliography: ファインマン物理学.1
• Metadata: Data example DC-NDL (RDF) format * Example of OAI-PMH. Please see "View page source," etc.

The "rdfs:seeAlso" part of the above metadata

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="https://mina.ndl.go.jp/api/daisy/streaming/R100000073-I8833093"/>
<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="https://mina.ndl.go.jp/api/daisy/download/R100000073-I8833093"/>

Since the download URL and streaming URL are described, users will know that this DAISY audio is available for downloading and streaming.

About streaming DAISY audio and DAISY audio & text

Streaming playback of DAISY audio (DAISY 2.02) and DAISY audio & text (DAISY 2.02) is implemented in a special way. Please contact us for details.

This data is available for both commercial and non-commercial use without application. Users must follow the "Terms for Use for Bibliographic Data”. These terms for use for bibliographic data are compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC BY).

Data for persons with print disabilities is produced and provided based on the restriction of rights in Article 37 of the Copyright Act. For details of Article 37 of the Copyright Act, please see Copyright Act (Act No. 48 of 1970) (in Japanese).

A user ID and password of Data Transmission Service for Persons with Print Disabilities is required to access (download/stream) the content. If you need a user ID and password for application development or verification, please contact us at the contact information provided at this end of the page. We will consider your request individually based on the details of your application, etc.

For information on how to obtain a user ID and password as an individual user, please see "How to become a registered user of the Data Transmission Service for Persons with Print Disabilities".

Cautions

Please pay attention to the following points when using content.

• The content is not available for persons other than persons with print disabilities.
• Non-librarians are not allowed to reproduce the content.
• Use for development purposes is permitted within the scope stipulated in Article 30-4 (1) of the Copyright Act. (Please note that this is limited to "the extent deemed necessary".)
• In addition, agreements (memorandum of understanding, etc.) with the NDL must be observed.

Section of Library Support for Persons with Disabilities, Library Support Division, Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, Japan
FAX: +81-774-94-9117
Email: syo-tky