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5. Cooperative Collection Development Strategy and Evaluation Cycle
The Library reinforces cooperative partnerships with national libraries in major countries (the United States Library of Congress, the British Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Library and Archives Canada, the National Library of Australia and the National Diet Library of Japan) to develop the collection of foreign resources through resource exchange, shared use of resources and transfer of acquired information. The Library is actively amassing a collection of academic research resources on the natural sciences and engineering, which has to date remained underdeveloped in comparison to those of the national libraries of major countries. The Library collects foreign resources by purchase and donation in partnership with Korean culture centers in other countries. To better compile an advanced and extensive national collection, the Library establishes a consortium and sharing system with domestic collecting institutions (such as the National Assembly Library, the Supreme Court Library of Korea, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI), the National Archives of Korea, reference rooms at national ministries, information centers of government-funded institutes and major university libraries) and strives to develop domestic and foreign academic research resources, gray literature, web databases and electronic journals and online information resources on a joint or sharing basis. The Library enhances its function of collecting special resources such as antique books, archival documents, ancient maps, manuscripts, pictures, three-dimensional objects and brochures through cooperation with domestic institutions dedicated to culture (museums, archives, art galleries and culture centers).
As guidelines outlining the basic principles of library collection development, this policy statement has been published in order to better ensure systematic, consistent, reasonable, objective and practical collecting practices. The Library will revise and complement its collecting policy every three years as a timely response to fluctuations in national policies, social and environmental changes, paradigm shifts in the production and distribution of knowledge and information and the evolution of user demand for information. In cases where immediate revision is required due to alterations in national policies or to other factors, the Library will adjust it with greater frequency.