Digital libraries in Korea

The development of digital libraries in Korea began in 1996. Since then the National Digital Library, funded by the government, and university libraries have been actively involved in digital library projects. The National Digital Library is made up of seven representative libraries affiliated with various government agencies. Its core mission is to build full text databases in order to construct a "knowledge reservoir". Many university libraries have developed or are in the process of developing digital libraries appropriate for their campus needs. In addition, there are other special and research libraries that are actively involved in digital library projects. This paper introduces the status of various digital library projects in Korea, mainly on the National Digital Library, university digital libraries in cooperation with the Korea Education and Research Information Services (KERIS), and other private digital libraries.