National Library of Korea Digitized Resources (NLK Digital Collections)

Overview

The National Library of Korea's Digitized Resources portal provides free online access to a wide range of digitized materials from the collections of the National Library of Korea (NLK), Korea's largest national library located in the Seocho District of Seoul. The NLK was established in 1945 and holds more than 10 million volumes, including foreign-language books, national treasures, rare books, and extensive media archives.

History and Founding

The National Library of Korea traces its origins to the Government-General of Chōsen Library, established in 1923 during Japanese colonial rule. After Korea's liberation in October 1945, the library was renamed the National Library of Korea. In 1963, the Library Act formally established the institution under its current name. The library moved to its current building in the Banpo-dong area of Seocho District, Seoul, in 1988. The National Digital Library (Dibrary) opened in May 2009 as a separate facility offering access to digital resources.

Collections and Holdings

NLK's digitized resources span a broad range of formats and subject areas. The portal provides access to ancient texts, ancient maps, textbooks, government gazettes dating from 1894 to 1948, monographs, manuscripts, Korean classic novels and bibliographies, sheet music, serial publications, doctoral dissertations in the humanities and social sciences, and Japanese-language materials published before 1945. Newspapers digitized through 1960 are also available.

Thematic digital collections highlight specific areas of historical and cultural interest. These include rare books designated as national treasures, Korean materials produced before 1945, the first issues of modern Korean magazines from 1910 to 1945, Korean paperback novels (Ttakjibon) published in Hangul from the 1910s through the 1970s, Korean textbooks across multiple eras, early government economic policy materials, the Donguibogam (a UNESCO Memory of the World-listed traditional medicine text), and editorial cartoons by Kim Seong-hwan. Materials documenting the Korean Independence Movement and North Korean documents from the 1945–1950 period, held originally at the U.S. National Archives, are also accessible.

Notable Materials Related to Journalism and Media

Among the most significant resources for journalism and media researchers are the digitized Korean newspapers covering the period up to 1960, government gazettes from 1894 to 1948, serial publications including rare early editions, the first editions of Korean modern magazines published between 1910 and 1945, and editorial cartoon collections. The OASIS (Online Archiving and Searching Internet Sources) program also collects and preserves online grey literature, policy materials, and web pages.

Access and Usage

Full-text digitized materials for which copyright has expired or been cleared can be accessed by anyone free of charge via the NLK's English-language portal and digital collection interface. Copyrighted materials may require fees in accordance with the Korean Copyright Act. The KOLIS-Net bibliographic sharing service, launched in June 2001, allows users to search library catalogs across Korea. Mobile web access to digital collections has been available since 2010.