National Library of Korea Awarded Chairperson Prize of the Library Information Policy Committee

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] The National Library of Korea was selected as an excellent institution in the '3rd Comprehensive Library Development Plan 2021 Excellent Implementation Tasks' and received the Chairman's Award from the Library Information Policy Committee.

The National Library of Korea received excellent evaluations in tasks such as strengthening national library information services and expanding linkage of library information services.

A representative project for strengthening national library information services includes the collection and permanent preservation of national documents including ancient books, and the expansion of libraries participating in digital material usage agreements. As of the end of September, about 13.6 million book and non-book materials and over 18 million online materials have been collected and permanently preserved as national knowledge heritage. Among these, about 1.9 million books have been digitized and are available for use at affiliated libraries nationwide.

The number of affiliated libraries expanded from 2,440 in 2020 to 4,913 in 2022, striving to enable all citizens to conveniently access the national collection. Additionally, branch libraries such as the National Library for Children and Young Adults and the National Sejong Library are working together to promote children's reading culture and develop and disseminate specialized services for research, policy, and humanities, culture, and arts experts.

In the field of expanding linkage of library information services, various projects are being carried out based on the establishment of a nationwide library network. The 'National Materials Integrated Catalog,' which allows simultaneous searching of materials from libraries nationwide, includes about 1,900 libraries such as public, specialized, and small libraries, and the national interlibrary loan service 'Chaekbada' actively involves about 1,200 libraries.

In particular, in 2021, 47,841 materials were requested through 'Chaekbada' from libraries nationwide, achieving a result of more than a 200% increase compared to the previous year.

A representative of the National Library of Korea stated, “As the nation's representative library, we will lead the implementation of the 'Comprehensive Library Development Plan,' established every five years for library development, and unite efforts to collect, preserve, and disseminate knowledge information, the source of national competitiveness, to build a solid foundation for Korea's knowledge culture.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.