Report on the 4th KSAA Biennial Conference "Intellectual Engagements with Korea: Diversity in Korean Studies in Australasia", held at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, 14-15 July 2005

Jung-Sim Kim
Monash University Library

1. The existing collections in Australia for Korean language collection are mainly located in the National Library of Australia with around 30,000 titles, at the Monash University Library with around 9,000 titles and at the University of Sydney Library which has fewer titles. As cooperation, the National Library and the ANU Library signed an agreement, which covers collecting, bibliographic control, access, loan of material and preservation for collecting and providing access to Korean vernacular materials in 1996. Asian Libraries in Melbourne (ALIM) has been formed by the University of Melbourne and Monash University as a collaborative venture between the two university libraries to share services and develop collections.
   
2. The National Library of Australia Korean collection focuses on collecting economics, statistics, politics and government, history, foreign relations, law, biography, language and literature and government publications. They also collect materials from Pyongyang including some twenty journals and one daily newspaper. As a new service for users, the National Library of Australia provides the Korean acquisition list of new titles acquired. This service is through the Web or paper format or email alert service provided on request. She also distributed the paper format of the list at the session.
   
3. Korean user survey was done in 1998. The survey looked at research and information needs related to Korean academic studies and business as well as investigated library usage. The result showed a low awareness of existing services and recommendations were to promote collections, more coordination and improve electronic resources. So the survey needs to be updated for the current situation of Korean collections and services.
   The second speaker was Kaaren Hiyama, Asian Languages Librarian, University of Auckland Library, New Zealand, who spoke on "The University of Auckland's Korean collection: Development and directions".
   The University of Auckland is the only substantial Asian language collection in New Zealand with dedicated Asian staff. They have a full-time Korean cataloguer, Mrs. Woo, who has provided Korean language services there for more than ten years. The Korean studies department was established in 1989 and has participated in evolution of today's School of Asian Studies. The library has 10,700 volumes which includes 870 reference items and 14 serial subscriptions. The budget is NZ$14,000 in 2005. The Korean collection is a general collection with a focus on literature, history, religion and culture. Circulation figures for 2004 show that 21% of borrowings from CJK collection are Korean language items. This is a lot more than the circulation of Japanese items, but less than a third of that of Chinese language titles.
   The Library has the responsibility to create a reference collection as well as a general collection in the humanities that will have long-term relevance. The main subjects collected to date are classical poetry, modern literature, women and gender studies, overseas Koreans, the Japanese occupation, modern Korean politics, traditional culture and folklore, current popular culture, reunification, film studies, literature by overseas Koreans translated into Korean and commentary by Koreans about Japan and China.
   The University of Auckland Library system, the Endeavor Unicode compliant system, allows searching in Hangul and also provides vernacular script on the Voyager OPAC. They are also using the OCLC CJK cataloguing client and Harvard Yenching Classification system. Services to users are by phone, email or in person. She suggested that within Australasian countries, she would like to use interlibrary loan for avoiding duplicate items.
   The third speaker was Hee-Sook Shin, Korean Studies Librarian, Columbia University, USA. Hee-Sook spoke on "Korean Studies and Korean Collections in North America".
   Hee-Sook explained about the Korean Collections Consortium of North America (KCCNA), with an emphasis on its activities and achievements, and discussed possible concerns with suggestions for improvement in the future.
   Korean studies and Korean collections in North America began and developed after the Korean War. A more expansive increase in Korean studies in many institutions in North America commenced with the establishment of the Korea Foundation (KF) in 1991, and presently there are more than hundred institutions offering Korean studies in North America.
   The consortium started in 1992 with representatives of the Korea Foundation (KF) and six Korean librarians from universities with the most developed Korean studies programs and Korean collections (Columbia University, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Hawaii, University of Southern California, and University of Washington). They met to organize a cooperative collection program. The Consortium's purpose was to build a comprehensive collection in North America, strengthening under-developed areas of the Korean collection while avoiding duplicates between the individual collections. As a result of the effort the Consortium, initiated and supported by the KF with a five-year grant, was founded in 1994 with the goals of establishing a comprehensive collection that covers a variety of subjects for Korean studies scholars and students. The consortium has prevented the purchase of duplicate materials at member libraries and resulted in sharing resources to support the entire Korean studies community nationwide. Currently, the KCCNA consists of ten members.
   Grant agreements and the assigned subject areas of each member library can be found at library.berkeley.edu/KConsort/ Each member library was restricted to and responsible for collecting materials in their specialized subject fields and the KF grant was only used to purchase materials within the members' specialized subject fields. These materials were catalogued not only in each member's individual local database, but also in national utilities, such as the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), which allows scholars and students free access to the materials through interlibrary loan (ILL).
   Since 1994, the Consortium's contributions include enhanced quantity and quality of Korean collections in North America, the obtaining of secure personnel support for collection responsibilities, and the sharing of resources via ILL nationally as well as internationally including non-book format materials such as videos, DVDs and microforms. The Consortium has been able to perform valuable functions, such as providing consultation services to small and medium libraries, and has fostered ongoing, regular communication between Korean studies librarians.
   Hee-Sook also mentioned some current issues for and ways to improve the Consortium. For new member libraries which need to develop reference and core materials to support teaching programs, they need flexibility in using the KF grant in the ways they want in order to better meet the needs of their library users. To find suitable subjects for new member libraries and to prevent duplication, the existing subjects should be thoroughly reviewed by the Consortium members.
   The most essential criterion for the Consortium's success would be permanent financial support for the development of Korean collections in North America.
   The last speaker, Jung-Sim Kim, Korean Studies Librarian, Monash University Library, gave a paper on "Finding Full Text articles in Korean Databases on the Internet".
   Jung-Sim explained that scholars working overseas sometimes find it difficult to obtain articles on the country they are studying. Her paper discussed Korean databases that can be searched through the Internet and which provide full texts of articles. She also provided examples of how to use three particularly useful databases.
   Owing to limited budgets many university libraries in Australia cannot afford to buy many Korean full-text databases. The libraries also cannot afford subscriptions to many major Korean journals. Yet, the Library has to support our users in meeting their research needs. This difficulty faces librarians in many language areas. Thus, librarians, especially those in charge of small collections, continuously need to spend time to find and check information on free databases in order to provide resources for their academic researchers, students and other potential users. As information on the Internet can change fairly rapidly, librarians need to check reasonably often to make certain their information is up-to-date. In case, the paper mentioned that users should login for retrieving the Korean Integrated Newspapers Database System (KINDS) articles, but users can retrieve articles without login from 7 June 2005.
   According to the Ministry of Information and Communication and the National Internet Development Agency of Korea, 77.8% of Korean households have computers and 86% of these can access the Internet at home ( isis.nic.or.kr/eng_report_down/upload/user_sum_200412_english.pdf (accessed 23 May 2005). Fortunately, the majority of full-text databases on the Internet are well developed in Korea. The one hurdle is that one needs to know Korean in order to use them.
   There are many free Korean databases available on the Internet in which people can obtain full text articles. Many of these databases, however, require that scholars become members before they can use the database.
   In order to use databases which maximize the number of useful articles retrieved from the Internet, she gave a demonstration of three Web-based databases:
   1. The Research Information Service System (RISS4U) run by the Korean Education & Research Information Service www.riss4u.net/index.jsp Through RISS, the user can access union catalogs, overseas research information, the full texts of journal articles and dissertations from 230 Korean university libraries as well as some articles from databases outside Korea. Services are free after the user registers. The site is in Korean.
      
   2. The National Digital Library which has seven participating digital libraries in Korea. www.dlibrary.go.kr It has seven participating digital libraries including the National Library of Korea, the National Assembly Library of Korea, the Supreme Court Library, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, the Korean Education and Research Information Service, the KAIST Digital Science Libraries, and the Korea Agricultural Science Digital Library in Korea.
      
   3. The Korean Integrated Newspapers Database System (KINDS) www.kinds.or.kr A comprehensive online news database service since 1990. KINDS provides articles from 181 media including national and local newspapers, economic dailies, English-language dailies, television network news programs, magazines and professional newspapers.
      At the session, she retrieved articles on "Family law" in those databases and showed the results from the search.
      She also mentioned Korean databases on the Internet that the user can access such as "AAS Roundtable: Electronic Resources in Korean Studies" at www.asianst.org/absts/2005abst/Korea/k-67.htm At the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Meeting in March/April 2005, Korean studies librarians at major North American academic libraries demonstrated the most important Korean electronic resources, both free and commercial.
      In using on-line databases, it is important to choose the most appropriate databases for the topic and to use appropriate search terms. Sometimes, a bit of experimentation with search terms may be appropriate.
      Most databases require the user to login. This means that users have to become members. Some databases require foreigners to contact them or to click a special foreigner's "box". A few database sites are not available to users outside Korea. Users may also need to install a viewer program from the corresponding agency to view full text materials. After the session, librarians and attendees visited the Asian Languages Collection, General Library, the University of Auckland. Thank Kaaren and Mrs. Woo for giving us the Asian Language Collection tour. [This photo was taken after the library tour]