Journal Entry: 6/9/09
Seoul National University (SNU) was the first national university in South Korea, and served as a model for the many national and public universities in the country. Seoul National University has been recognized for its leading role in Korean academia. Wooseob also went to school here for his undergrad. SNU has been regarded as the most eminent of all post-secondary educational institutions in South Korea.
We went directly to the Library where we were given a PowerPoint Presentation about the library. This was followed by a tour of the library. In December 31, 2008, the library’s total collection of books, including all the annexes, was approximately 3.7 million volumes. It is a public library as well as academic.
We were given a coffee mug as well as a cup warmer/USB extension port as a gift.
After we headed to the bus station where we went to Cheongju to visit the Jikji museum. Jikji was printed during the Goryeo Dynasty in 1377, it is the world’s oldest extant movable metal print book.
Jikji was published in Heungdeok Temple in 1377, 78 years prior to Johannes Gutenberg’s “42-Line Bible” printed during the years 1452-1455. The Gutenberg museum apologized for not recognizing the Jikji as being the oldest published book with a gift to the museum.
In 2009 I traveled to South Korea to study abroad. I kept a diary of each day of my visit. When I returned to the United States, I created these digitized posts of my entries and the images that I took on each corresponding day. You can find all the South Korea journal entries here.
