The Role of the National Library of Korea in the Competitiveness Enhancement of Libraries

• Published in: Alexandria (Aldershot) Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 161 - 172
• Main Author: Chi-Ju, Lee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.04.2008
• ISSN: 0955-7490; 2050-4551
• DOI: 10.1177/095574900802000106

The paper describes projects initiated by the National Library of Korea (NLK) with the aim of improving the nation's information competitiveness. The Library set up a library automation team in 1979, working for library automation in Korea generally as well as in the NLK. Firstly, the NLK developed an automation system for the national bibliography, which was collected and catalogued by the NLK. Secondly, the NLK developed the Korean Library Automation System (KOLAS), which has been distributed to both public libraries and government libraries throughout the entire nation. The system enables individual libraries to establish their own databases by downloading the national bibliographic database without performing original cataloguing locally. The NLK has provided libraries with the national bibliographic database on magnetic tapes, CD-ROMs, and online, according to changes in the technology environment. The NLK next developed a cost-effective resource sharing network system by launching the National Electronic Library in collaboration with major Korean libraries. This resource sharing system allows users to access library materials in cyberspace without visiting a specific library. The NLK has also been establishing a contents database for publications published in Korea. As of 2006, the NLK is planning to select outstanding materials from its legal deposit collection and provide links to the selected materials on the official NLK website, helping public libraries to select valuable works from legal deposit publications. With a library management information system introduced in 2005, the NLK can make decisions on open access stock for each reading room after analysing statistical reports for both open and closed stacks. Until now, the collections have been shelved by the year of publication. The library management information system will help library patrons use the library collection more conveniently and will be distributed to public libraries nationwide.