CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 60, November 2007
On the 13th of July, Korea Research Institute for Library and Information had the opening ceremony celebrated by Jong-min Kim, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Dr. Kyung-sang Kwon, Chief Executive of the National Library of Korea, and many other cultural supporters from the Ministry and other institutions around the country. Under the newly amended Library Law Article 19-2, Korea Research Institute for Library and Information is the national institute installed in the main building of the National Library of Korea for developing library policies and researching for the development of the field of library and information.
Even though the objective of Korea Research Institute for Library and Information (hereinafter the Institute) is elucidated in such a short statement of ‘developing library policies and researching for the development of the field of library and information,’ the Institute’s R&D ranges could be expanded into the comprehensive areas of library policy, library technology, library management, library culture for the development of libraries in Korea. Further not only does the Institute apply and distribute exemplary national policies, management theory, and technologies on library and information from the developed countries around the world, but also the Institute needs to support with library policies by suggesting logical alternatives induced from the researches and analysis of the issues emerged at the actual field of libraries.
Korea Research Institute for Library and Informationtries to eliminate any indulgence on theories and conceptual schema only based on the researches on literature and documents, and rather aims at finding out the practical knowledge and information to distribute nationwide so that libraries around the country could apply them in the actual scenes at the libraries when and where they are needed. That is, one of the most important objectives of the Institute is to disseminate and share practical knowledge that could be applied and utilized in the field. It is one of the Institute’s basic responsibilities to provide the fundamental status reports and data for the establishment of library policies through the comprehensive analysis and comparison of the conditions of the field. In addition, as the national institute, Korea Research Institute for Library and Information needs to actively engage in researches on blue ocean areas, which would be rather difficult task for private institutions to jump in, and also the areas where the national institute could have a differentiation from other private institutions’ research areas. It might be said that KoreaResearch Institute for Library and Information as the national institute carries quite a responsibility on many tasks of researches for the development of library and information.
The most comprehensible and clear legal regulation of the ranges of the Institute’s project is elucidated in the ‘Ministry of Culture and Tourism and its subsidiary institutions and organization enforcement regulation.’ It states Korea Research Institute for Library and Information’s affairs of policy development and research tasks as follows:
- To research on the development of library policies
- To distribute and develop statistics on library and criteria for evaluation
- To research on library preservation and conservation technology and to operate material preservation room
- To research on the management and operational strategies of the Old and Rare Collection and Korean historical document
- To research for the standardization of national bibliography
- To publish and distribute on any activities related to library research and study
Korea Research Institute for Library and Information tries to devote to set up the fundamental structure of research foundation by taking series of actions for establishing of long-term development plans, organizing the development consulting committee, developing homepage and publishing web-zine(web magazine) as the basic projects of entering into the full-scale researches.
The major operational plans for Korea Research Institute for Library and Information for 2007 are mainly 1) promoting foundations for the Institute’s research, 2) researching cases of advancement in library field, and 3) researching the standardization of library.
Korea Research Institute for Library and Information is; first, planning to host the occasional monitoring meetings of the consulting committee of Korea Research Institute for Library and Information constituted with professors of library science, preservation specialists, and professionals working in the fields, in order to collect opinions and views from various circles and fields; second, currently in process of researches on the development plans through outsourcing in order to obtain the medium and long-term development strategies and the establishment of visions with the analysis and assessment of the range and contents of full-scale research project; and third, granting awards to the best examples of the improvement made in the practical affairs at the libraries and collecting best examples of library publishing source books.
For researching the advancement of library, the Institute is; first, carrying out the researches on the ‘library space management report and standard model research,’ through outsourcing, as the first task of seeking the alternative of library policy with the statistical researches on major issues; second, with the first publication dated on the 31st of August, publishing biweekly web-zine, titled “Now@Library” introducing the research trend in libraries abroad; third, preparing to construct the Institute’s homepage with the basic categories of information, such as library trend information, library law, library statistics, library research reports, business trip reports, library information science terms and definitions, academic events news from all over the world; and lastly, planning to visit library research institutes in order to establish cooperative system with three countries in Europe for the benchmarking of the advanced management of library research institutes.
For library standardization projects, the Institute is; first, operating “material construction research group” concerning the issues of standardization of bibliography in cooperation with library staffs and library information science researchers; secondly, working on appendix for ‘ISBD’ of IFLA; thirdly, researching on ‘RDA’ of international catalogue regulation; and fourthly, operating homepage for ‘IMEICC.’
Recently, Korea Research Institute for Library and Information has gone through organizational reformation of unifying the Old and Rare Collection Room and Collection Preservation Room, which were previously under the Acquisition and Technical Processing Division, into the Institute. Now, under the Institute, there are three teams of Research Development Team, Old and Rare Collection Management Team, and Collection Preservation Team with total 23 members. Accordingly, associated fields suggested as the ‘Library Collection Preservation Technology Research’ are of researching Korean historical documents in relation to collecting, DB construction and providing bibliographical introduction, which would be expanded into more concrete areas of researches on preservation, such as preservation technology development, preservation process experiments, and more. And further, a series of research activities on preservation and historical documents are expected to be carried out onward.
According to the ‘Korea Research Institute for Library and Information Report for Operational Plans’ published in 2006, the major functions of the Institute are expanding library infrastructure, which had been in rather poor condition, and developing library services to the public. The Report suggests the Institute to investigate, analyze, evaluate, and research operation conditions of libraries. In order to do so, the Institute needs to 1) closely cooperate with the Presidential Committee for Library Policy, 2) cooperate with regional representative libraries, 3) cooperate with Korea Library Association and Korea Society for Library and Information Science, 4) strengthen interchanges and cooperation with libraries around the world, 5) consolidate the research function of the National Library of Korea, and 6) try to secure and guarantee the public’s right to have access to information.
The principal objectives of the research and development projects of Korea Research Institute for Library and Information are namely the researches on the library policies for the development of libraries; however, eventually, the ultimate goal is to provide the public with easy access to information and knowledge and to offer cultural benefit with the better library services to users.
Korea Research Institute for Library and Information will thoroughly acknowledge its mission to the public as the national research institute and will try to stand firmly at the center of the library policy promotion system for the development of libraries. Korea Research Institute for Library and Information, as the connecting channel of the academia and library fields, will carry out the thorough investigation, analysis, and researches for the development of libraries through the practical and actual field-oriented studies in order to support establishment and execution of the library policies of the National Library of Korea and
Copyright (C)2007 National Library of Korea
