Kyungjae Bae: Evolving Concept of Digital Libraries in Korea

Kyungjae Bae, a visiting scholar in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at UNC-Chapel Hill and Associate Professor at the Department of Library and Information Science at Dongduk Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea, is set to deliver his talk, ‘Evolving Concept of Digital Libraries in Korea – Major Cases,’ at 12 p.m. on Friday, November 17, 2017 in Manning Hall 001.

Abstract: Digital Libraries are not extraordinary any more in these days. Most libraries have a collection of digital objects for organizing, storing, and retrieving the files and media contained in the library collection. They have also provided the physical Information Commons to produce, conserve, and preserve information for current and future generations in the library. As the traditional definition focusing on technology fade away, the concept of Digital Library steer to its unique content and services.

In my CRADLE Talk, I will provide a brief explanation about the development of Korea’s digital libraries and some major cases. South Korea is well known for its high-technology, especially high-speed internet, smart technology and technological companies such as Samsung, LG and so on. Thanks to its advancement of science and technology, Digital Libraries in Korea also have been developed so quickly since the mid 1990s.

Looking through the major library cases as follow can help you to understand the progress of digital libraries in South Korea.

Case 1. National Digital Library of South Korea (Operated by National Library of Korea) 

Case 2. LG Sangnam Library – Digital Talking Book Library for the print disabled (LG Sangnam Library is the first digital library in Korea)

Case 3. SKKU Library using IoT (Sungkyunkwan University Library)

Bio: Kyungjae Bae is a visiting scholar in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the year 2017. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Library and Information Science at Dongduk Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea. He received his M.A. (2004) and PhD (2009) in Library and Information Science from the Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. He’s worked in the LG Sangnam Library, the first digital library in Korea, as a team manager for 10 years before joining the University. In the Library, He performed several digital library projects (https://www.lg.or.kr/eng/pages/about/overview.do) such as digital services for youth and the disabled. His research interests include information literacy, data literacy, information service for the disadvantaged, and usability evaluation.