(3 August 2016) The Supreme Court Library of Korea has entered into a generous partnership with the Bodleian Law Library that will provide students and scholars at the University of Oxford with access to an extensive range of books about Korean law.
On Monday 1 August, Judge Kee Jurng Kim, President of the Supreme Court Library of Korea and Presiding Judge of Seoul High Court visited the Bodleian Law Library to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the institutions.
As part of the agreement, the Supreme Court Library of Korea has donated more than 100 books to the Bodleian Law Library. The books, which are all recently published commentaries and textbooks, provide up-to-date information on all aspects of Korean law, ranging from property rights and trade law to intellectual property and internet law. In addition, the Korean institution has agreed to donate further legal books each year to the Bodleian Law Library.
The Supreme Court of Korea is the highest court in South Korea and is based in the capital, Seoul. The Supreme Court Library collects and provides an extensive and diverse range of law-related resources for South Korea’s legal practice community and academic community.
‘We are honoured that the Supreme Court Library of Korea has chosen the Bodleian Law Library to be a UK Centre of Excellence for the study of Korean law and comparative studies,’ said Ruth Bird, Bodleian Law Librarian. ‘This very generous donation will enable us to offer those studying comparative law a whole new jurisdiction that, previously, wasn’t well represented in our collections.’
The Bodleian is continually expanding its collections to support the diverse needs of its readers. This latest partnership follows three recent initiatives that have improved access to Asian study materials. In 2013, the Bodleian Libraries entered into a collaboration with the National Library of Korea (NLK) for the ‘Window on Korea‘ project which saw the creation of a new Korean Studies Library located in the basement of the University’s Oriental Institute Library. The NLK donated 3,000 books to the Bodleian, making the Korean collections at Oxford University the largest in the UK.
In 2014, the new Bodleian KB Chen China Centre Library opened in the £21 million Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre Building. The Bodleian KB Chen China Centre Library provides a permanent home for 60,000 volumes of the Bodleian Libraries’ Chinese collection and improved access to the Libraries’ Chinese holdings. In 2015, the new Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies (TRCCS) was opened at the Bodleian KB Chen China Centre Library, providing more than 500 books and DVDs published in Taiwan on a diverse range of subjects. The TRCCS is one of several to be established at institutions across the world as part of a programme initiated by the National Central Library of Taiwan to promote Taiwanese scholarship and improve access to resources on the history, society and culture of Taiwan.
Read the illustrated announcement here.
