Korean Rare Book Digital Collection

The Korean Rare Book Digital Collection is a small collection of books and manuscripts from pre-modern Korea, discussing a variety of subjects. These topics include history, politics, social life and values, education, biology and more from the pre-modern Korean perspective. While collection spans from the 15th to the 20th century, many of the particularly valuable materials within the collection are from the 15th century, and are the only extant copies of these documents.

Beyond this collection, the Library of Congress website is an open-access resource available for students and teachers to browse. It boasts a wide selection of documents, many of which are free to use. These documents include photographs, books, films, web archives, legislation and more, from a range of subjects and time periods. The Library of Congress also offers some lesson plans making use of primary sources they host, a blog describing teaching methods, and other resources to enhance both the student and teacher experience. These resources, combined with its easy to use platform, make it, as well as this collection, great resources and guides for use in the classroom.

Obviously the documents in collection are not available in English, but they still provide learning opportunities for students of all types, including language learners and students of history. This Collection also represents international efforts to share information, as in 2008 the Library of Congress digitized many sources found in the Korean Books Rare Manuscript Collection for use by the National Library of Korea, where those materials are not available.