"If a museum’s main work is collecting and researching materials, a literature museum is a place that should be shared with the public," Im Heon-young, director of the National Museum of Korean Literature, said. "I want to make it a space where everyone — not only writers — can enjoy literature."
Im made the remarks on Feb. 9 at a news conference in Seoul’s Jongno district marking his first month in office, repeatedly stressing the goal of making literature more accessible to the public.
Im took office in January as the museum’s third director. The National Museum of Korean Literature is scheduled to officially open in spring 2027, next to Jingwansa temple in Seoul’s Eunpyeong district, near where King Sejong is said to have set up a secret study room to create the Korean alphabet.
Im said he has adopted the catchphrase, "Every citizen memorizes one poem," and argued that the concept of literature must broaden to help meet the Culture Ministry’s goal of building a 300 trillion won K-culture industry. He said literature can encompass history, philosophy and even parts of science, and pledged to create more opportunities for people to enjoy literature across politics, society and religion.
As a first step, the museum will name an "Author of the Month" to highlight writers who left a major mark on Korean literary history and hold joint commemorative events with related organizations. The next month’s selection will be made around the 25th of each month.
The museum also plans to develop a literary travel product, "Korean Literature Journey," with public agencies such as the Korea Tourism Organization, local governments and the travel industry. The program is intended to let readers experience literature by visiting writers’ birthplaces, places they worked and sites that served as settings for their works. It will be linked with literary festivals and regional tourism events nationwide.
Im also said the museum is focusing on collecting original materials, with plans to gather works spanning 5,000 years of literary history from classical literature to modern and contemporary writing. The museum has built an archive of about 120,000 items. Its "Korean Literature Materials Management System" includes a chatbot and OCR tools that can convert visual materials into documents.
The system will also link to author information to provide authoritative profiles. The museum plans to include Korean literature from all periods and in all formats, from handwritten manuscripts to typewritten pages. Designed from the start for shared use with literature museums nationwide, it is expected to be converted around 2030 into a "Korean Literature Heritage Portal" that anyone can use.
"Our job is to spread literature widely to all citizens," Im said, adding that he would pursue popularization by applying what Minister Choi Hwi-young has called looking at things "15 degrees off-center."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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