The original article published in Japanese ( https://current.ndl.go.jp/e2779 )
Current Awareness-E No.499
April 17, 2025
Mina Search – Reflecting on the First Year since Release
In September 2024, “Mina Search (National Diet Library (NDL) Materials Search for Persons with Disabilities), libraries that provide data for persons with print disabilities to the NDL and data producers” were awarded the “Library of the Year 2024 in the Librarianship Category” for enabling searching for materials for persons with disabilities, involving persons with disabilities themselves and their supporters.
The official name of “Mina Search” is “National Diet Library Materials Search for Persons with Disabilities.” It is a service that the National Diet Library (NDL) provides for material search by persons with disabilities. A beta version was released in March 2023 (see E2608). After incorporating feedback from persons with disabilities and other relevant persons, improvements were made and the official version was released in January 2024. The nickname “Mina Search” means “Everyone’s Search” in Japanese and expresses the NDL’s desire to make the system easy to use and easy to search for all people. This article provides an overview of Mina Search reflecting on the first year since its release with statistics, and discusses future prospects.●Summary of Mina Search
Mina Search is a service that enables persons with various disabilities to find materials in formats that are easy for them to use. Disabilities include blindness, visually impaired, dyslexic, difficulty holding paper books or turning pages, and difficulty maintaining a reading posture.
Because Mina Search is linked to 10 databases, users can conduct a consolidated search not only for materials for persons with disabilities held by the NDL, but also for materials produced and held by other libraries, materials available on websites other than Mina Search, as well as commercially available e-books compatible with text-to-speech technology and audiobooks. Another characteristic is that users can specify 24 different types of material formats, including braille, DAISY, text data, barrier-free visual materials, and large print books to narrow down their search to formats that meet their needs.
Furthermore, among materials searchable in Mina Search, some can be downloaded directly from Mina Search and be used on computers or smartphones. These materials are part of “Data Transmission Service for Persons with Print Disabilities” that NDL has provided since 2014. Mina Search serves as an entry point for this service.
●Changes in the Number of Users
Aforementioned Data Transmission Service for Persons with Print Disabilities is available to individuals with print disabilities and institutions (transmission-approved) that have registered as users with the NDL. Examined here will be the impact of the release of Mina Search on the number of individual registrants and transmission-approved institutions for Data Transmission Service for Persons with Print Disabilities.
First, the number of individual registrants was 551 over the period of approximately nine years from January 2014 – when the service began – to the end of March 2023 (an average of about 61 per year). However, with the release of beta and official versions of Mina Search, the number of new registrants significantly increased by 363 in just under two years from April 2023 to the end of December 2024.
A similar trend was observed in the number of registered institutions approved for transmission. While the number of registered institutions newly approved for transmission was 239 from January 2014 to the end of March 2023 (an average of approximately 27 per year), the same number from April 2023 to the end of December 2024 was 134, an increase of more than 100 institutions in just under two years.
This expansion in the use of Data Transmission Services for Persons with Print Disabilities can be attributed to the release and increased recognition of Mina Search.
●Changes in the Number of Access
Examined next will be how much data available for persons with print disabilities in Mina Search is being used. Prior to the launch of Mina Search, the number of accesses to data for persons with print disabilities was on average about 54,000 per month. After the release of beta and official versions, the number increased sharply to an average of about 72,000 per month.
One reason for the increase in access is that Mina Search now offers significantly more data than before. This is due to the start of provision of full-text data for approximately 2.47 million digitized materials. Full-text data refers to text data created by optical character recognition (OCR) processing from digitized image data of materials in the NDL collection. With full-text data, persons with print disabilities can use text-to-speech software to read and confirm the contents of digitized materials or display the text in braille. Currently, over 3 million full-text data are available. The NDL plans to gradually increase the number of items provided in line with the progress of text digitization.
Providing a vast amount of full-text data in Mina Search revealed the potential needs for diverse materials among persons with print disabilities. This may be another factor that contributed to an increase in the number of accesses to data for persons with print disabilities.
●Future Prospects
Release is not the end for Mina Search. We will continue to reflect on user feedback and make continuous improvements to enhance usability, with the goal of evolving the service into an even better one.
For example, we plan to strengthen outreach efforts to school libraries and university libraries regarding the use of Mina Search so that students can access necessary materials tailored to their needs and characteristics. Expanding the use of Mina Search is expected to facilitate smoother access to accessible materials in schools and universities, thereby advancing efforts to create a barrier-free reading environment.
The search function of Mina Search is available to anyone and does not require registration. We encourage you to try it out. We hope Mina Search will serve as a gateway for diverse people to enjoy reading.
Written by Honda Maiko
Library Support Division,
Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library
Translated by Okada Aya
*References are not translated and remain in Japanese language.
Ref:
“「みなサーチ（国立国会図書館障害者用資料検索）とデータ提供館並びにデータ制作者の方々」がLibrary of the Year 2024ライブラリアンシップ賞を受賞しました”. NDL. 2024-10-15.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/news/fy2024/241015_01.html
みなサーチ.
https://mina.ndl.go.jp/
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https://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/support/send.html
“視覚障害者等用データ送信サービス（図書館等向け案内）”. NDL.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/library/supportvisual/supportvisual-10_02.html
“読書バリアフリーの推進に向けて、みなサーチ正式版を公開しました”. NDL. 2024-01-05.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/news/fy2023/240105_02.html
みなサーチ正式版を公開しました. 国立国会図書館月報. 2024, (758), p. 8-18.
https://doi.org/10.11501/13610008
杉田正幸. 国立国会図書館障害者用資料検索「みなサーチ」β版の紹介. カレントアウェアネス-E. 2023, (459), E2608.
https://current.ndl.go.jp/e2608
