Innovation Beyond Institutions: New Projects and Challenges for Government Information Service Institutions in Japan

This paper attempts to present an overview of and discuss innovations in main government information service institutions in Japan—the National Diet Library (NDL) and the National Archives of Japan (NAJ)—in the electronic environment. This paper examines two approaches of the NDL and the NAJ toward innovative projects: (1) retrospective digitization of historical publications and documents and (2) treatment of born-digital information. It then proposes a desirable strategy for the NDL and the NAJ, as well as government information service institutions in other countries, to aid them in “innovation beyond institutions.” This strategy involves (1) collaboration in the management of information systems and (2) cooperation between government libraries and government archives. Introduction: Government Information Service Institutions and Their Roles Although this paper is being presented at the IFLA Government Libraries Section and the theme of the session is “innovation,” this paper considers innovation not only at government libraries but also at government archives. This is because, as discussed