National Library of Korea Provides 70,000 New Korean Publications to the World Library Integrated Catalog

The National Library of Korea (Director Seo Hye-ran) will newly release 70,000 records of domestic new book information on WorldCat to make it easy to access Korean book information worldwide.

WorldCat is a book information service operated by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), a nonprofit organization in the United States. It involves more than 49,000 libraries in over 180 countries. Over 70 million researchers, general users, and publishing industry professionals use WorldCat annually. The book information held by WorldCat is linked with major international search portals and book recommendation sites, exposing it to readers around the world.

The National Library of Korea (hereafter the Library) signed a business agreement with OCLC for the first time in Korea in 2016 and has been providing 1.57 million records of domestic book information, including academic books, general knowledge books, and doctoral dissertations, to WorldCat. Following the renewal of the agreement in 2021, the Library plans to present new book information collected annually over the next five years.

A library official stated, “With the growing influence of the recent New Korean Wave, international interest in Korean cultural content has increased. In line with this trend, the National Library of Korea will take the lead in promoting Korean books more widely to overseas readers and publishing professionals and spreading Korean knowledge culture worldwide.” The official added, “We hope this will also increase opportunities for translated publications and overseas expansion of domestic authors.”

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