The Encyclopaedia of Korea – a part of the ANU Digital Collections - is a comprehensive English language Encyclopaedia that covers multifarious fields of information on Korea. The printed copy of the Encyclopaedia was completed in 1999.

The Encyclopaedia was reviewed and mounted as an ANU open access digital collection in 2011. Sixty Koreanists worldwide contributed some 1300 entries. Of these, Korean scholars contributed about 30 per cent and 70 per cent were from Koreanists in mainly English-speaking countries. Of the minor entries, many are English translations from the Encyclopaedia of Korean Culture (Han’guk munhwa taepaeggwa sajon), as well as Japanese and Chinese sources.

The contributors’ names are recorded in the ‘List of Contributors and Translators’ and also at the end of the entry itself, complete with bibliographical references. The ‘Index of Entries’ is extensive (about 120 pages), and its contents include the entries in both Sino-Korean and English).

The idea for an Encyclopaedia of Korea in English germinated from many general and specific enquiries being addressed to the ANU about Korea, which were increasingly referred to me for reply. It was apparent that a wide assembly of interest from academics, broadcasters, journalists, politicians, students, teachers and the general public needed to know more about Korea in the English language.

The Encyclopaedia is comprised of about 1500 pages. Korean words are Romanized according to the McCune-Reischauer Romanization System, with some minor exceptions. Overall Statistics (ANU Open Research Library Statistic for Encyclopaedia of Korea) available since the Encyclopaedia became part of the ANU’s Open Access Digital Collection in 2011, there has been 3, 292 views and 6,801 downloads of whole and part articles.

The Encyclopaedia of Korea can be accessed at: https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/10445

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