National Library of Korea Opens 30 Million National Bibliographic Records to the Private Sector

Gradual Expansion of Data Openness

The National Library of Korea will open its national bibliographic data, which had previously been used mainly by experts, so that it can be widely utilized by the general public and private companies.

The National Library of Korea will open its national bibliographic data to the private sector.

On January 12, the National Library of Korea announced that it would develop an OpenAPI service based on national bibliographic Linked Open Data (LOD) through the “2025 National Key Data Opening Support Project” led by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and provide this data through the Public Data Portal.

National bibliographic data is a systematically organized dataset of publications and various knowledge information resources produced and distributed in Korea. The newly released national bibliographic OpenAPI will offer a total of five types of data to meet the diverse needs of users. Specifically, it will provide bibliographic information on monographs, serials, and online materials; author information on individuals and organizations; subject information based on the National Library of Korea Subject Headings (NLSH); information on libraries nationwide; and interlinking data that supports connections among domestic and international bibliographic, author, and subject datasets.

Although the National Library of Korea had previously provided national bibliographic LOD, access was limited for general users because it required the use of the specialized query language SPARQL. The newly introduced national bibliographic OpenAPI lowers these technical barriers, allowing users to easily utilize national bibliographic data without specialized knowledge. In particular, the response data is provided in structured formats such as XML and JSON, increasing its usability across various services, research, and industrial fields.

The scale of the data released this time amounts to approximately 30 million records. The National Library of Korea plans to continue updating and improving the quality of national bibliographic data, while also gradually expanding data openness to support artificial intelligence (AI) training and the development of intelligent services.

Lee Hyunjoo, Director of Digital Information Planning, stated, “The opening of the national bibliographic OpenAPI lays an important foundation for expanding the practical use of public data,” adding, “We will continue to foster a data ecosystem in which everyone can freely use national knowledge information.”