Hiroyuki Taya, a senior staff librarian at the National Diet Library, realized the power of the Internet when the nation's largest library recently launched a new service to open part of its collection to online users.
"It's incredible," said Taya, who heads the Electronic Library Promotion Section, a day after the Web site opened. "The site has been accessed at a rate of 1,000 people per second. Just incredible."
The Web site allows users to browse some of the library's collection of artwork from the Edo Period (1603-1867) free of charge.