A Plan on the Establishment of a National Museum of Natural History in South Korea

The purpose of this study was to provide a master plan for the establishment of a Korean National Museum of Natural History. The origin and development of the natural history and the natural history museum were surveyed by visiting not only Korean natural history museums but also foreign ones from 1987 to 2009. Based on the obtained information, the qualitative and quantitative status of Korean natural history museums was comparatively analyzed in terms of globalization. Results indicated that Korean natural history museums ranked more than 100th in the world, and the research, management, and publications were situated in a rudimentary stage. Particularly, the number of researchers within the area was too small, and the research environment was poor in its function and resources. In addition, the specialists on exhibition and education of the museums were too few to publish the research products and academic journal articles. For that matter, a strategy as the research-specimen management-publication-exhibition-education functions should be in place to operate before the construction of National Museum of Natural History begins.