National Library of Korea introduces enhanced online service amid coronavirus spread

The National Library of Korea started providing its enhanced online service Digital Collection on Monday.

“Digital Collection provides selected content curated by experts from different fields who also wrote commentaries. We hope that this cultural content can help people who are having a difficult time due to the delay of the new school semester and social distancing,” a National Library of Korea official said in a statement.

The service can be accessed via the National Library of Korea’s website nl.go.kr.

Documents and books under 34 different categories have been curated on the online platform. For instance, award-winning Korean children’s literature includes introductory documents about different awards and winners’ works.

Another category, Korean literature in the world, consists of Korean books translated into different languages and book reviews of translated works by foreigners.

The online platform also features 16 exhibitions held at the National Library of Korea, National Library for Children and Young Adults and National Library of Korea since 2011. The platform uses virtual reality to provide street view-style images, allowing a 360-degree view of the exhibition space.

“We selected exhibitions for which we thought it would be meaningful to provide digitalized service,” the library’s spokesperson told The Korea Herald.

However, the service did not get off to a smooth start Monday, though the problems have since been fixed. Online viewing of the exhibition featuring novelist Yeom Sang-seop faced technical difficulties on Monday morning and provided the wrong content.

Since taking office in August last year, National Library of Korea Chief Executive Suh Hye-ran has been keen on digitalization. The library recently installed additional booths for creating digital media content.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)