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The Korean Heritage Library at the University of Southern California

The Korean Heritage Library (KHL) at the University of Southern California (USC) (http://www.usc.edu/isd/korea) was established in 1986 with the aim of building one of America's most important Korean research collections. Thanks to the tremendous support of the USC Library Administration, alumni (both in Korea and in Los Angeles), foundations and other support agencies, the library has achieved a phenomenal success within a short period of time. Widely considered to be the fastest growing Korean collection in America, it is now one of the few leading Korean collections among American academic institutions. Today the USC Korean Heritage Library holds a collection of over 65,000 volumes, 6.5 full-time staff, collection endowments valued over $1 million, and an annual acquisitions budget of over $220,000. A beautiful two-story brick building provides an elegant home to the collections, patrons, and staff. The fact that USC has placed its greatest emphasis on building its Korean collection is notable. While the typical Korean collection in America comprises about 5-10% of East Asian holdings, the Korean Heritage Library represents close to 50% of all of USC's East Asian holdings, followed by Chinese and Japanese. This is a reflection of the importance that Korean studies holds at USC.

Korean Studies Program at USC
Interior of Korean Heritage LibraryFounded in 1880, the University of Southern California is one of America's leading private research universities. Because of its special historical and geographic connections to Korea, the University is particularly well positioned to meet the challenges of developing one of the leading Korean studies programs in the country. The University's location in Los Angeles, a Pacific Rim city with the largest Korean population outside of Korea, has fostered the academic understanding of Korea and its people. USC first offered instruction in Korean language in 1942 and hired its first full-time Korean studies faculty in 1977. In 1995, the Korean Studies Institute was established to serve as the University's principal organization for the promotion of education and research on Korea. Today, USC has four full time core Korean studies faculty in linguistics, history, literature, and art history.

The Collection
We collect materials in all areas of Korean studies, including history, culture, language, literature, philosophy, thought, sociology, politics, economics, and arts. Our 65,000-volume collection includes over 46,000 books, 1,600 serials (in 14,000 volumes), 1,500 videocassettes & DVDs, 2,330 reels of microfilm, 240 maps (including 180 rare maps), 110 CD ROMs, several hundred photographs, and significant holdings of archival materials. In addition to strong print collections, the KHL's particular strengths are: Korean full-text electronic databases in all subjects; newspapers, missionary files, and Gyujanggak collections on microfilm; visual materials (video and DVD); rare maps; and archival records related to Korean-Americans and immigration. As a member of the Korean Collections Consortium of North America, a cooperative collection development program sponsored by the Korea Foundation for the purpose of sharing resources, we are responsible for linguistics, cinema, journalism and mass media, and local materials of the Jeolla-do region. The Consortium materials are loaned free of charge to any Korean studies scholar or student anywhere in America.

Using Our Collections
The Library's primary mission is to support the active and growing Korean studies program at USC. In addition to serving USC faculty and students, the Library also provides services to the larger Korean studies community in the Los Angeles area and beyond. Our users include the Los Angeles Korean American community, graduate students and scholars from other universities in America, and scholars from Korea.

Most of the materials are freely available for use at the Library. We also provide inter-library lending service to all types of libraries, within North America and abroad. Those who are far from Los Angeles but wish to use our resources are advised to use the interlibrary loan service from the library of their own institution or a public library near their home.

Holdings of USC Libraries are bibliographically accessible from anywhere through Homer, USC's online catalog on the World Wide Web, at http://library. usc.edu, and through international bibliographic utilities (OCLC Worldcat and RLIN Eureka). When searching the catalogs, it is important to use the McCune-Reischauer Romanization System, the standard used by all Ameri- can libraries.1 In addition, the KHL home- page provides convenient finding aids to many of our special resources.

Digital Archives
Our unique archival resources are conveniently accessible on the Web as follows: Korean American Digital Archives2brings more than 13,000 pages of s, over 1,900 photographs, and about 180 sound files together in one searchable collection. The Archives the Korean American community in the early 20th century, their efforts during the period of resistance to Japanese rule in Korea, and the organizational and private experience of Koreans in America between 1903 and 1965. The components of the Korean American Digital Archive include: Docu- ments of the Korean National Asso- ciation Memorial Hall, The Rev. Soon Hyun [aka Hyon Sun] Collected Works, Korean American Private Records, Korean American Archive Photograph Set, Korean American Museum Oral History Series, The Korean Heritage Library Archival Collections. The Sea of Korea Maps Digital Archive3 consists of 172 original old maps, dating from 1606 to 1895, in English, French, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Latin, German and Russia, illustrating how the West's image of East Asia evolved over the course of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The majority of the collection (of 132 maps) was assembled to the historical use of the term "Sea of Korea" (or similar terms) for the sea between Korea and Japan.

Other Electronic Resources
Exterior of Korean Heritage LibraryWe offer comprehensive electronic resources related to Korea. In addition to all of the scholarly databases provided by the three major commercial vendors (Nuri Media, Korean Studies, Inc., and DongBang Media), USC is the only American university that provides access to the digital holdings of the Korean National Assembly Library, which include more than 3.5 million s of all kinds, comprising some 44 million pages of full-text s. Although some electronic resources must be accessed from USC computers for licensing restrictions, many more free scholarly databases are linked from our Web page.

Outside Support
Our success would have been impossible without the support of external agencies and foundations, in both the United States and Korea. The Korea Foundation deserves special mention for its generous grants to the Korean Collections Consortium of North Ame- rica, the KHL Endowment, and a librari- an position. The Overseas Korean Studies and Heritage Foundation (Chairman, Dr. Oh Tae Hyun) has provided close to $400,000 towards collection endowments. The following foundations and agencies have also provided generous support: the Korea Research Foundation, Korean Airlines, Ssangyong Corporation, the California State Library, and the Friends of the Korean Heritage Library in Los Angeles.



For further information or help in using our library, readers are encouraged to contact:

Joy Kim, Curator, Korean Heritage Library: email joykim@usc.edu, phone 1-213-740-2329

Sunyoon Lee, Korean Studies Librarian: email sunyoonl@usc.edu, phone 1-213-821-1567

Ken Klein, Head of East Asian Library: email kklein@usc.edu, phone 1-213-740-1772



1) To learn how to use the system, consult Chapter 1 of Korean Librarianship Outside of Korea: a Practical Guide and Manual, at the Library's website.

2) http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/arc/di-garchives/kada/index.html

3) http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/arc/di-garchives/sea-korea/index.html

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