The National Museum of Korea is going to have a small exhibition, with the theme of 'Where would
all those books of the Joseon Dynasty books published?'. The exhibition will open on April 24th, 2007.

We can see from the sheer volume of documents and publications that a lot of books were published
during the Joseon Dynasty period. Where would all these books have been published? During the
Joseon Dynasty period, unlike today, the government published books and issued them itself,
instead of having publishing companies publish all those books. The Joseon Dynasty pursued civil
administration by ruling with academic studies and institutional systems, and it established several
offices in charge of publication such as Gyoseo-gwan and had them publish Confucian books,
historical texts and legal codes. Central government offices with specialties of their own also
published the books they needed.

Local administrative offices created republished version based upon the original one sent from
the central, or published necessary books themselves and issued them to the public. Civilian
publication mostly came from Buddhist temples, and also Seoweon schools and private individuals
published personal anthologies or household genealogies. During the latter half period of the
Joseon Dynasty, cases of publication pursuing commercial profits also increased.

Books published during the Joseon Dynasty period contained information regarding when and
where the book was published either in the first page or the last page. In some cases, such
information regarding the publication were put inside the foreword section or the afternote section
which we usually find today.

In this exhibition, 16 types of Joseon Dynasty books will be shown to the public, and the exhibition
will be arranged in a certain fashion so that people would be able to witness the various forms
employed to deliver information regarding factual details involving the issue of when or where
books were published.