Researching Materials for the Study of Korea Using Online Resources at the Library of Congress

Transcription

1 Journal of East Asian Libraries Volume 1988 Number 83 Article Researching Materials for the Study of Korea Using Online Resources at the Library of Congress William Shaw Follow this and additional works at: BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Shaw, William (1988) "Researching Materials for the Study of Korea Using Online Resources at the Library of Congress," Journal of East Asian Libraries: Vol : No. 83, Article 3. Available at: This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of East Asian Libraries by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact scholarsarchive@byu.edu, ellen_amatangelo@byu.edu.

2 RESEARCHING MATERIALS FOR TIlE S1UDY OF KOREA USING ONLINE RESOURCES AT TIlE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS William Shaw Library of Congress, Federal Research Division Recently the computerized catalog of the Library of Congress has aroused interest and comment from librarians, researchers, and the general public. Scheduled eventually to replace the familiar standing card catalog that graces the main reading room in the Jefferson Building, the new system encompasses most ofthe books in the catalog and is the only means ofaccess to books in the general collection cataloged since The Library of Congress Information System (LOCIS) encompasses two retrieval systems that are titled Multiple Use MARC System (MUMS) and Subject-Content-oriented Retriever for Processing Information Online (SCORPIO). Both systems use the same terminal but require use of somewhat different sign-on procedures and search commands. An introductory hands-on teaching program for SCORPIO, taking about ten minutes to complete, is built into the system; basic instruction in MUMS takes about fort -five minutes. The two systems allow the use ofdifferent search methods and provide access to different types ofmaterials located in various "fj1es" within the system. Some materials, such as books in the general collection, may be located through either system. Several special files that may be searched by computer are of special interest to researchers in modem Korean studies. The MUMS system has a MAPS fj1e, containing maps cataloged at the Library ofcongress since 1968 and a MUSIC fj1e that provides listings of recordings and scores in the Library's Music Division holdings. Both fj1es contain Korean material. The SCORPIO system may be used to search the BIBL fj1e which contains citations and brief abstracts of hundreds of thousands of articles, government publications, and chapters of books published since 1976 on a variety ofpublic affairs topics ofinterest to Congress. Hundreds of these items deal with Korea. The National Referral Center Master (NRCM) fj1e in SCORPIO lists hundreds of organizations willing to answer questions on specialized subjects. SCORPIO Legislative files permit the search of all public bills and resolutions of the 93rd through the 99th Congress. The MUMS and SCORPIO systems both provide access to cataloged books in various languages. A number of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language books in the holdings of the Asia Division are searchable through the computer using the same subject index terms as those utilized for the general collection. It is important to understand the limitations of the various files as well as their strengths. When proper search techniques are u~ the computer can quickly provide convenient and moderately comprehensive bibliographies. But it does not have comprehensive coverage ofnewspapers, many specialized news magazines like the FuENte". Economic Review, publications ofthe Foreign Broadcast Information Service or the Joint Publications Research Service, or many of the increasing number of business publications published in Asia. The Legislative fj1e is intended to provide coverage ofbills and resolutions; it does not include testimony given before Congressional hearings or committee reports.

3 Retrieval SnJI1!1 Tab" I; Ptu1jqIun gflqcis FUn COlltqlnlnr R,cprrb'" KDmJ Total Number ~ Number ofrecords ~ SCORPIO LCCC(a) PREMARC(b) BIBL(c) CG(d) NRCM (e) 377,688 1,218 5, (South) 134 (North) vartes by year MUMS MAPS MUSIC (a) Library ofcongress Card Catalog; books cataloged since 1968 in English and since various dates in other languages (b) Materials cataloged from 1898 to 1979 (except law) (c) Bibliographic Citation File; articles, government publications, other records (d) Legislative Files (e) National Referral Center Master File For Asian language materials, the card catalog and other specializ.ed rmding aids of the Asian Division should be utilized for completeness of coverage. A search of the pre-1981 card catalog of the general collection and the catalogs of other specialized reading rooms and reference collections may turn up additional items in English and other non-asian languages. The mechanics of searching, including commands used with MUMS and SCORPIO, are best learned at the terminal with the assistance of the Library's specialists. A few words here should encourage the reader to spend the comparatively small amount oftime required to learn the details later on. The LOCIS sy~tem is designed to be useful and unintimidating. No special experience with computers is required and useful reference aids and online help (in SCORPIO) are available. The commands, especially those in SCORPIO. are in English or are based on English and most commands have simple single-letter abbreviated forms. Commands immediately precede the exact name ofthe author, title, or subject being looked for. Searching in SCORPIO or MUMS is essentially a process of selecting and refining lists. The shortest of these lists may be those containing a single publication that has been located by title or author. The longest may contain several thousand "records." or items, grouped under a subject heading. Each of these lists may be temporarily stored and then displayed a few recttds at a time on the terminal screen or printed out for later reference. To provide an idea of some of the resources on Korea currently accessible through the system. the following table summarizes several recent searches using SCORPIO or MUMS. 6

4 Tqb" 2.' SqmRk Swck, V,,,,, SCORPIO andmvms (AHmt 21. I98$) Retrieval SJ.1Jl!!! FileName Seam. Tema Numker ofrecords SCORPIO MUMS LCCC Korea corporate author: 11 title: 20 index: 1,218 Korean War, index: 225 PREMARC K<rean War, index: 543 BIBL Foreign relations-- South Korea index: 180 Foreign relations-- North Korea index: 77 MAPS Korea 216 MUSIC Korea 38 You will usually want to refine longer lists to produce a specialized bibliography before examining every item. The SCORPIO system has some simple but powerful tools for this purpose. One of these techniques is "combining." Fex" example, a lengthy list on Korea may be combined with another lengthy list on Japan to generate a third, shorter list that includes only those boob ex" articles that deal with both countries. Unlike the character in Th, P/dwkk P,Pta who prepared a speech for a learned society on "Chinese philosophy" by reading in the encyclopedia under "China" and "philosophy," the SCORPIO system really can produce a bibliography by combining two lists in this manner! A further refmement is "limiting." You might limit the combined Korea/Japan list mentioned above to books or articles published during the past five years. The resulting list could be further limited to items in English, French, ex" some other European language. (It is not yet possible to limit a list to records in a non-european language.) Similar refmements are possible with the Legislative me in SCORPIO. Bills and resolutions may be searched by Congress, sponsor, committee., title, subject, and in other ways. With a few keystrokes, it is possible to create a list of all bills or resolutions in a given Congress that mentioned Korea, to identify sponsors and cosponsors, and to track the progress and status ofeach. In many instances, bill digests are also available.

5 TtHr J; 11M,1Mu..u C,...".,..t... SCORlEOtA CMUll.'W] Ori&inIJ RCCO'dsI...'q[Bf(ri KCftal6,9\l Publisbed iboraher,,., Published itioroher,~, " TtHr 4: lime 1M CtIf!lftMC_1f mscqlwoid,ww.iwi on&... SeMdII NrlMbtr qfhcpru BIBL I Soooltl KCftaloW I 2~396 1 SooodIeasI Asi~427 4 NonII KOfU'I)4 'TaiwW)49 cllnd I cllndl c Ilnd4 cl.ncb ", " NOIe: Tallie 4 lhows tho combi... a>riiil\ind... it is IClIUlly.sed. "Number 0( R«ords",how. the number of ilo... ind.."" IUlder bach helllinp. The Libnry 0(Conl"en Worrnalion SyslOJn is <;OCIpnually bt'" rer,,*, Ind l",pre.."" and moy btelpeclod l<l mllcrial. beoomel_itia1y.lelilllo I1lIUfdlm in ""'-' mel Knrean...ncan 1CUdXs. Ev...a1ly. _ in!he Librw)o wiu be lilxeiiible ItIrooop bach SCORPIO and MUMS. II lim.. Ilqcr ponioi'i 0( the Kore.. bna...colkclion ~ld abo be li:<;es$ible 10 _hert ltirooo&h SCORPIO and MUMS. It will bt possible 1O..1JdI Asi.. I...e mlleriols by I..&u.e 0( I"'blic... as _II... by,.bjea. 1II1hnr. and tille. 0Iher...lDm.ICinn pnlj<c1s 0(the Ubnoy luch II tho 0JIlicIl disk piioi proamn. CIIrrenliy in Ule in \he Ncws\lllp" and

6 Current Periodical Reading Room and in the Prints and Photographs Division also have exciting potential for K<nan and Korean-American studies. The following kinds ofkorean-language materials will be made available when LOCIS is funher refmed. The Korean-language holdings of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress number approximately 90,000 serials and monographs. Virtually all ofthe serials and about ninety per cent ofthe monog.raphs are cataloged. Since 1950 the acquisitions policy for Korean-language materials has emphasized works on contemporary Korean affairs and Korean imprints on these subjects for the current and immediately preceding fascal year. The collection also includes premodern Korean works in Chinese dealing with Korean history. Under the leadership of Dr. Key-pm Yang, who has been with the Library of Congress since 1950 and since 1962 has served as the Korean Area Specialist in the Chinese and Korean Section, the Library's Korean collection has developed strong holdings in several fields, including: o Korean-language publications in the United States from 1950 to the present; o Korean publications in Manchuria from 1979 to the present; o North Korean serials (270 titles) and newspapers (15 titles); o North Korean monographs (some 6,000 titles) o Korean-language titles published in Korea between 1945 and including many items no longer available in Korean libraries; and o a comprehensive collection of works in English on Korea published before 1920, together with substantial holdings ofenglish-language publications dealing with Korea published since Access to many of these holdings is possible through the card catalog or, with the assistance of a librarian, the Chinese-Japanese-Korean terminal keyboard of the Research Libraries Group. Dr. Yang provides assistance with additional specialized finding aids and lists retained in the Korean Unit ofthe Chinese and Korean Section. Additional materials on Korea in English and other languages are widely available through the general collection and many other specialized collections and reading rooms ofthe Library ofcongress. The Korean collection of the Asian Division of the Library ofcongress, located in the John Adams Building, is open to researchers from 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. on Monday through Friday and from 8:30 A.M. to 12:30 PM. on Saturday. 9