CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 66, November 2009
1. Introduction
The National Library of Korea (NLK) is responsible for acquisition, preservation and transmission of Korean cultural heritage to future generations. Library service today needs to be expanded to rapidly emerging and vanishing online resources as well as offline resources. To make this idea a reality, many national libraries worldwide invest human resources and funds to promote projects for acquisition and preservation of online resources; MINERVA in the USA, CEDARS in the UK, PANDORA in Australia, and so on. Since 2004, NLK has been working on "Online Archiving & Searching Internet Sources (OASIS)", a project designed to acquire online resources, such as web sites and web documents.
2. Opening of the National Digital Library of Korea
The National Digital Library of Korea (NDLK) opened on May 25th, 2009 for the purpose of offering high quality information services based on digital contents, and supporting users to efficiently utilize information and systemically create knowledge.
Figure 1. General view of NDLK
Figure 2. Information Commons
NDLK consists of two parts: Information Commons and Dibrary Portal. The former is physical space where all users have an equal opportunity for access to digital materials, education, creation, communication, relaxation and experiences through hightech IT facilities. The latter is virtual space where high quality digital information worldwide is provided. As jointly operated with Dibrary Portal as a virtual space and Information Commons as a physical service space, NDLK is one of the advanced digital libraries in the world, offering integrated services for both digital and analog contents. More diverse and valuable online resources need to be acquired and provided in NLK in order to meet users' various needs for information as a result of the opening of NDLK.
Valuable online resources collected through OASIS are provided on Dibrary portal site
(http://www.dibrary.net).
3. Acquisition of Online Resources
Online resources currently collected by NLK are mainly focused on web sites and web documents containing research reports, periodicals, government policies, and statistics shown on the open bulletin boards. As of August 31st, 2009, the NLK had collected 408,645 online resources, including social issues of Korea, such as regional festivals, the Assembly election, new administrative capital, and so on. For instance, NLK collected personal web sites of candidates for the 18th Assembly election and the home page of "Council for New Administrative Capital in Korea".
53,294 materials which had obtained permissions for use from authors (copyright holders) are provided on the OASIS homepage (http://www.oasis.go.kr).
Table 1. The number of titles in OASIS Collection
As of August 31st, 2009
| Year | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Total |
| Web resources | 40,096 | 50,259 | 63,725 | 100,512 | 112,070 | 41,983 | 408,645 |
4. Acquisition Process for Online Resources
NLK's acquisition process for valuable online resources is composed of five stages. In the first stage, in accordance with the guideline for selection, various internet resources are selected by acquisition team of Digital Library Division, as well as online resources recommended by the public or experts in each subject. In the second stage, digital resources selected in the first stage are then collected through "Collecting System for Online Digital Resources". In the third stage, for digital resources cataloging, Dublin Core elements input including title, creator, publisher, URL, abstract, etc. and subject classification are completed.
In the fourth stage, librarians review and revise the catalog, make a final evaluation for the worthiness of collected web resources for their preservation, and solve copyright issues. Preservation procedure for the collected online digital resources and assigning of digital identifier are major responsibilities of the last stage.
Figure 3. OASIS System Organization Chart
5. Legal Basis for Acquisition of Online Resources
Due to the volatile nature of online resources, most of them are constantly being updated or disappearing, and web sites themselves are even closed in many cases, so that we could lose reference unless they are acquired and preserved at a proper time. Recognizing this, many countries make efforts to legislate for legal deposit of digital resources in order to make legal basis for effective acquisition of online resources. Canada, Denmark, France, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and so on have enacted legal deposit of digital resources since 2003.
Library Act, its Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rule were amended and put in force from September 26th, 2009, to support acquisition of online resources in NLK. New Articles are added in amended Library Act and its Decree, defining acquisition of online resources, and establishment of "Deliberation Commission for Library Materials" for deliberation on major guidelines, including selection, types, formats, compensation of library collections.
The NLK is preparing for the organization of "Deliberation Commission for Library Materials" and trying to make a reasonable criterion for online resources including e-books, through collecting and reflecting opinions of persons interested. The NLK always aims to make the best efforts for user services so that working classes and information alienated people in particular can actually benefit from the services provided.
Copyright (C) 2009 National Library of Korea
