The Condition of the Korean Collection in U.S. Libraries

Journal of East Asian Libraries 6-1-1993 The Condition of the Korean Collection in U.S.. Although there are still only a small number of universities which routinely offer a range of Ko

Journal of East Asian Libraries

6-1-1993

The Condition of the Korean Collection in U.S Libraries

Yoon-Whan Choe

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Choe, Yoon-Whan (1993) "The Condition of the Korean Collection in U.S Libraries," Journal of East Asian Libraries: Vol 1993 : No 99 , Article 5

Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jeal/vol1993/iss99/5

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THE CONDITION OF THE KOREAN COLLECTIONS IN U.S LIBRARIES

Yoon-whan Choe University of Washington

INTRODUCTION

This paper* is based on data derived mainly from the periodic surveys published in the

Committee on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) Bulletin and a survey which I conducted in

March 1992 These surveys are not as complete as one might wish The CEAL surveys, for instance, make no reference to the fast-growing Korean collection at the State University

of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, and this may not be the only omission My own survey was vitiated by somewhat uneven responses to the questionnaires I sent out However, it is not the aim of this paper to assemble statistics as such Rather, the aim is

to describe the dominant trends in the field, to identify some of the pressing needs, and to make suggestions by way of initiating a discussion on the future of the Korean collections

in U.S libraries

OVERVIEW

Korean collections in U.S libraries have developed in tandem with Korean studies in universities Both have come a long way in the past four decades Before 1950, subjects on Korea were taught at a handful of universities as part of a broad East Asia survey, often by

a Japan or China specialist Needless to say, there was not a single Korean collection to speak of in the whole country It took a war to spark an interest in the history, language, and culture of Korea The instruction of the Korean language in a public institution was initiated by an army special training program in 1950 as part of the military's response to the outbreak of the Korean War.1 A few universities followed suit, taking it one step further by offering courses on Korean history and culture in addition to language It was also in 1950 that the Library of Congress began to collect Korean-language materials,2

'Presented at the Conference on "Enhancing Korean Studies: Scholarship and Libraries" held at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C on October 8-10, 1992

b e f o r e the war, three U.S Foreign Service officers were trained in Korean at the Defense Language Institute in 1947 and 1948 See Donald S MacDonald, "The Study of

Korea in the United States," Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch 65

(1990): 41-47

2Arthur W Hummel, "The Growth of the Orientalia Collections," Library of Congress

Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions 11, no 2 (February 1954): 81

followed by the Harvard-Yenching Library in 1951.3 Before the decade was over, four

more Korean collections were in operation, at the University of California at Berkeley, the

University of Washington, the University of Hawaii, and Columbia University

The war has long ceased to be the driving force behind the development of Korean studies

in the United States but deepening trade ties between the U.S and Korea and a sizable

Korean presence on campus and in society at large provided a new impetus, and both

Korean studies and Korean libraries have continued to grow in the United States Although

there are still only a small number of universities which routinely offer a range of Korean

studies courses, a 1987-88 study estimates the total size of the Korean studies field to be

around 350 scholars.4 The past few years alone saw the launching of several new Korean

studies programs across North America: on the West Coast, at the University of Southern

California, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of British

Columbia; in the Midwest, at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, and

Indiana University; and on the East Coast, at Cornell University and the State University

of New York at Stony Brook

All these institutions, along with the Center for Research Libraries, are actively collecting

Korean materials The 1991 CEAL survey lists 43 libraries in North America which have

some Korean-language materials The real figure should be higher because the survey does

not include the collections of public libraries, the Center for Research Libraries, and some

universities such as the State University of New York at Stony Brook The combined

holdings of all Korean collections in North America are now estimated to exceed half a

million volumes.5

TABLE I: The Holdings of Major Korean Collections

in the U.S in 1980 and 1991

Institutions Volumes 1991 Volumes 1980

Berkeley 39,113 25,810 UCLA 16,243 2,500 Chicago 9,399 2,679

3Harvard University Council of East Asian Studies, East Asia in Harvard's Libraries

(undated pamphlet), p 9

4Michael Robinson and Stefan Tanaka, "Survey on Korean Studies" (unpublished paper),

The Joint Committee on Korean Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and

the Social Science Research Council in cooperation with the East Asian Studies Center of

the University of Southern California (1989): 3

5"The Current Status of East Asian Collections in American Libraries: Table 1," CEAL

Bulletin, no 95 (February 1992): 32-33

TABLE I (Cont'd): The Holdings of Major Korean Collections

in the U.S in 1980 and 1991

Institutions Volumes 1991 Volumes 1980

Princeton 10,223 7,259 USC 15,699 NA

U of Washington 44,611 24,225

406,852 222,382 The vigorous growth of Korean collections in the United States looks all the more

remarkable when it is compared with that of the East Asian libraries in general The latter

grew 30% in the eleven years between 1980 and 1991 Korean collections grew 8 3 % during

the same period

TABLE II: Growth of Korean and East Asian Materials

the New York Public Library which was omitted in the 1991 CEAL survey

^suen-hsuin Tsien, Current Status of East Asian Collections in American Libraries

1974/1975: "Table 5," p 16-17 The figures for 1976 and the subsequent years are based

on the data in the CEAL Bulletin, nos 70/71, 87, 90, 92, and 95

Korean materials occupied 3.5% of all East Asian materials in North America in 1980 In

1991 it was 4.7%)

With the exception of two national libraries, three public libraries, and one special research library, all the U.S libraries with medium- to large-size Korean collections are university libraries However, the preponderance of university libraries should not obscure the vitality

of nonacademic collections In response to the needs of the rapidly growing Korean communities in metropolitan areas, the three public libraries are actively expanding their Korean collections The Seattle Public Library has recently set up a Korean collection within its East Asia section; the Los Angeles Public Library has opened a branch library in Korea Town while increasing its overall holdings of Korean-language materials; and there

is the fine Korean collection of the New York Public Library long known for its valuable early documents and rare materials mostly deposited by Christian missionaries returning from Korea A few public schools have adopted Korean as an elective foreign language and this is likely to lead to the establishment of Korean-language collections in some public school library systems

It is against a backdrop of four decades of impressive growth and development that I shall now turn my attention to the difficult challenges currently facing Korean libraries in this country Many Korean libraries today are trapped in a paradoxical situation where they find themselves steadily falling behind relative to what is demanded of them even while they are apparently moving ahead in absolute terms A confluence of circumstances has rendered

a mere incremental, quantitative growth hopelessly inadequate There is a clear need for

an innovative approach across the spectrum, but especially in three key areas of library operations, namely, acquisition, access, and personnel

to support not only scholars in humanities and social sciences as it used to, but also a growing number of researchers in such areas as trade and commerce, and industry and economy Each new field or discipline which a library is called upon to support has its own lengthy list of indispensable periodicals and basic reference tools This adds to the library's problems by forcing it to spread its limited resources thin Under these conditions, it is not inconceivable that a growth in collection size may actually conceal a diminishing capability

to meet the real needs of the users

Since scholars and researchers desire to be acquainted with all the relevant materials in their particular field, the mere existence of these materials creates a demand for them The recent explosion of publishing activity in South Korea has generated materials in such abundance as to overwhelm the most ambitious and the most richly endowed acquisition program In the two decades between 1970 and 1990, the annual publication of periodicals

in South Korea jumped 600% and new titles as much as 858%

TABLE III: Annual Publication of Periodicals in Korea7

Year Titles Year Titles

Year Titles Year Titles

Note: This table includes children's books, study aids, and books on

science and technology

No library outside Korea can hope to acquire more than a fraction of these materials, nor should it even attempt to do so However, no serious Korean collection can afford to ignore these figures either because they reflect not merely a boom in the publishing industry but

a far-reaching change which has virtually transformed South Korean society The figures from the past few years are especially noteworthy as they are directly linked to an easing

of decades of harsh censorship Some of the new publications are either reissues of old materials which have been banned until recently for ideological and political reasons, such

as the works of authors who went over to the North, or new materials on subjects which have long been taboo Scholarly works of North Korea are also being made available in reprints Most significant of all, a wide range of old historical texts are being republished, prompting a series of important revisions in historical scholarship Acquisition of these materials is essentially a catch-up operation to fill the yawning gaps in most Korean collections which have for many decades seriously hampered researches on both traditional and contemporary Korea

According to my survey, North Korean materials at present comprise 7% of the total holdings of Korean libraries in the United States

TABLE V: Percentage of North Korean Materials

in Selected Korean Collections in the U.S

U.C Berkeley 10 % U.C.L.A 1 %

U Chicago 1 % Columbia 10 % Harvard 8 %

U Hawaii 9 % L.C 13 % Princeton 5 %

U.S.C 5%

U Washington 8 % Average 7 %

There has been a marked relaxation of tension on the peninsula and contacts with the North are on the rise Although the absence of any North Korean bibliographies, book lists, or library catalogs poses a problem, there are dealers in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Tokyo through whom North Korean materials can be purchased There is as yet no direct acquisition channel to Pyongyang, but the Foreign Languages Publishing House and Export and Import Service in Pyongyang may be able to fill overseas purchase orders For gift and exchange arrangements, Kim II Sung University Library and the Grand People's Study

House seem the logical places to contact As more materials from the North are made

available, demands for them will also grow The massive publication of Yijo Sillok in four hundred volumes and Choson Yumul Togam, among others, have attracted considerable

interest abroad The growing need to acquire North Korean materials in addition to those from the South is another source of strain on already tight resources

There is a considerable output of research papers by Korean specialists in China and Japan but, due to budgetary constraints, few are being added to Korean collections in the United States on a regular basis

The increase in the volume of available materials came hand in hand with a spiraling cost, and both came at a time when most institutions were — and still are — reeling under drastic fiscal retrenchment There is no figure available which tells us precisely how much was spent each year for acquisition of Korean materials in U.S libraries, but we may hazard the assumption that the acquisition budget for Korean materials increased roughly at the same rate as that of the East Asian libraries as a whole, for which there are data

TABLE VI: Annual Acquisition Budget for East Asian Materials9

1965-1970 1,400,503 1970-1975 1,972,039 1975-1980 2,510,702

Note: The figures for 1965-1970, 1970-1975, and 1975-1980 represent

five year averages

The combined acquisition budget of all East Asian collections rose 399% between 1970 and

1990 If we assume that the acquisition budget for Korean materials rose at a similar rate during the same period, the increase was effectively neutralized by the rise in the price of

Korean books The price in won of an average Korean book in 1990 was 723% over that

of 1970

TABLE VII: Average Price of Korean Books in Won 10

9 CEAL Bulletin, nos 70/71, 90, 92, and 95

l0 Han'guk Ch'ulp'an Yon'gam, 1980, 1981, and 1991

Year Won Year Won

Average Price of Korean Books in Won

Note: This table is inclusive of some categories usually not purchased

by Korean collections in the U.S., such as children's books, study aids, and books on science and technology

The dollar has grown stronger vis-a-vis the won in recent years, but the gain has not been

large enough to make a dent in the rising cost of books for Korean libraries in the United States The Library of Congress paid 55% more for an average Korean book in 1990 than

it did in 1984

TABLE VIII: The Average Price of South Korean Books

Year Dollars Year Dollars

The Library of Congress Current Foreign Monograph Receipts," an annual report

published in the Library of Congress Information Bulletin

1988

1989

1990

15.09 18.85 21.96

The acquisition pattern of research libraries is different from that of the Library of Congress According to my survey, five U.S research libraries — Harvard, University of Washington, UC Berkeley, University of Hawaii, and Columbia — paid $27.89 on the average for a Korean book in 1991 The high cost of books seems to be the main culprit behind the slowdown in the growth of Korean collections since 1988, precisely at a time when both the demand for and the supply of Korean materials were rapidly increasing

One bright spot in the otherwise somber picture is the relatively large volume of acquisitions through gift and exchange According to my survey, gifts and exchanges accounted for nearly one fifth of all the acquisitions made by the ten largest collections in 1991

TABLE IX: Annual Additions to Korean Collections,

TABLE X: Percentage of Purchases and Gift & Exchanges

in the 1991 Acquisitions at Large Korean Collections

Institution Purchase Gift & Exchange

U Washington

Tsien, Current Status: "Table 2," p 12; CEAL Bulletin, nos 70-71, 87, 90, 92, and 95

Hawaii 80 % 20 % NYPL 90 % 10 % UCLA 70 % 30 % USC 80 % 20 % Princeton 80 % 20 %

81 % 19 %

A successful gift and exchange program requires close cooperation with various institutions

in Korea It entails an ongoing consultation between the parties in order to ensure timely updating of exchange lists, an uninterrupted flow of serial issues, and prompt notification

of items not available for exchange Of crucial importance is the ability to secure U.S university publications for Korean research libraries Exchange partners in Korea routinely provide:

* government publications

* university and college publications, including those by academic

departments and provincial universities

* publications of research institutions and affiliated organizations

* other noncommercial publications and hard-to-get materials

Dependence on gifts and exchanges is especially heavy for government publications The average percentage of gifts and exchanges in the total acquisition of government publications

is as high as 40% according to my survey of selected collections

TABLE XI: Percentage of Gifts and Exchanges

in the Acquisition of Government Publications

Institution Gifts & Exchanges

Library of Congress 80 % Harvard 5 % Berkeley 25 % Univ of Washington 25 % Hawaii 20 % UCLA 40 % USC 75 % Princeton 50 %

40 % Although gifts and exchanges are an important source of certain types of materials, their overall impact on a collection's acquisition program should not be exaggerated, considering the inherently limited range of the materials involved

A gap is inexorably widening between surging acquisition needs and lagging fiscal supports and there is no prospect of this trend reversing itself any time soon This is perhaps the single greatest problem facing the Korean collections today; it is a problem that is not about

to go away We will have to deal with it in one way or another if we are to ensure the continued success of Korean libraries in the United States

The solution I would like to propose is simple in concept: that all the Korean libraries in North America accept interdependence as the basic premise of their operation and jointly develop a structure of regional and national cooperation The idea is not new; it has long been standard practice among many libraries to share materials already in their collections through the interlibrary loan system and the national databases A logical extension of the principle underlying this practice demands that all the libraries participating in the interlibrary loan system coordinate their acquisition activities as well

A cooperative acquisition program on a regional and national scale will go a long way in eliminating costly duplication Not all materials, of course, lend themselves to this program; most periodicals and frequently circulated titles need to be on the shelf for immediate use and must be acquired by individual libraries But there is a long list of expensive and infrequently used titles which a library can lend without causing undue inconvenience to its users as long as these materials are available within the system For example, the vast amount of materials of the Choson period in the Kyujangkak Library of Seoul National University are now available in microform, but at a cost few libraries can afford A cooperative acquisition arrangement could be made under which Institution A purchases the materials from the early period, Institution B from the middle period, and Institution C from the late period, thereby placing a complete set of materials at the disposal of any interested scholar in North America The details of each arrangement could be modified in any number of ways to accommodate the particular requirements of individual acquisitions Once in place, a cooperative program could serve as a powerful instrument for the promotion of Korean libraries in North America In a time of shrinking budgets, the continued vitality of Korean libraries depends to a significant degree on our ability to attract outside funds A cooperative program is ideally situated to approach potential donors with

an authoritative assessment of the overall needs of Korean libraries in this country It could also lead a concerted campaign to establish a depository of Korean government publications

in the United States In this task as in the other, a voice speaking for the entire community

of Korean studies and Korean libraries in the United States will carry immeasurably greater weight than will a number of small voices raised on behalf of competing and overlapping local needs