By Ha Yoo-jung
Staff Reporter


Seoul Systems Co., an IT venture business specializing in DB (database) development of Korean historic documents, has launched a set of CD-ROMs which contain the 5,000-year history of Korea.

Dubbed "The Five Millennium History of Korea," it is a more user-friendly update of the originals, which the company produced in past years under separate titles.

The new package comprises "Samguk-sagi (The History of Three Kingdoms)," "Koryo-sa (The History of Koryo Kingdom)," the "Annals of the Choson Kingdom," and "Samabangmok," and will be available from mid-December.

Each CD-ROM contains both original texts, which were written in Chinese and Korean.

Each piece was released in the late l990s and hailed as comprehensive digitized historical references for Korea studies.

The first to third volumes of the four CD-ROMs, which cover Samguk-sagi, Koryo-sa, and the Annals of the Choson Kingdom, are the core part of the package, illuminating 5,000 years of Korean history.

The fourth and last CD-ROM showcase "Samabangmok," which lists 40,000 successful applicants for the national civil servant examinations and personal records of the bureaucrats and power elites of Choson Kingdom.

In addition to text information containing over 50 million Chinese characters, the CD-ROMs feature maps, related charts and various useful indexes.

The price of new edition of the electronic history books came down to about one tenth (490,000 won) of that of the previous editions, which were priced at more than 5 million won in total.

It was designed to be compatible with the new computer-centered environment and most of all, more compact. Thanks to up-to-date technology, the annals, which were contained in three CDs in the earlier edition, are now in one CD-ROM.

The CD-ROMs have a more powerful search system and hypertext reference system so that users can flash between texts and footnotes as well as get easy access to information in demand.

Korean translations and footnotes, originally based on those by renowned research institutes like the Academy of Korea Studies, are also revised and updated to feature the most recent literature.

The CD-ROM represents Seoul Systems continued commitment to the digitization of historical records.

"I hope that the digitized historical records will show children born in the digital age the value of Korean history," Dr. Lee Nam-hee, researcher of Seoul systems, said.

In addition to raising the public interest about history, she expected that the CD-ROM will support inter-disciplinary studies involving Korean history.

Those who have older versions of one of CD-ROMs can get the new CD-ROM at l90,000 won.

For more information about the new CD-ROM titles, call Seoul Systems at (02-543-3631 or visit its website (www.ssc.co.kr).