The Seoul Metropolitan Library added 15,000 Korean and foreign books in the digital format and 3,000 audiobooks to its catalog, making them available for free for registered users.

Any registered user can log on to the library’s website or mobile app, browse through available e-books and click on the “borrow” button. One can borrow up to five e-books at the same time and download them or read them from a web browser for up to 14 days.

The newly added books are subscription-based, meaning an unlimited number of people can access the content at the same time without having to reserve or wait for it to be available.

Foreign nationals can register online with a mobile phone number to access the library’s digital materials. The library services are available in Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese.

With the latest addition, there are some 28,000 e-books and audiobooks available at the Seoul Metropolitan Library (http://lib.seoul.go.kr).

The use of digital content has soared this year amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The number of e-books borrowed was 194,989 in 2020, rising from 88,407 a year earlier.

The library’s director-general Lee Jung-soo said that the library will continue to add new digital content and update the library’s website and mobile app.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)