Korean Studies Collection

The Korean studies collection at the Penn Libraries is focused on supporting researchers and scholars in Korean studies, as well as Korean language learners. Research and teaching at Penn have recently focused on contemporary media and literature, pop culture and Hallyu (Korean Wave), gender studies, historical genealogy, sociology, education practices, Chosǒn history, colonial Korea, Koreans in the Japanese colonies, and North Korea. The bibliographer aims to collect comprehensively on such specialized topics as these, while also creating a strong foundation for research and study of a broad range of topics in Korean studies, including history, literature, and the arts in premodern and modern periods.

Overview

Current strengths of the collection include:

Genealogy primary sources throughout Korean history
History and culture in the colonial period
Chosǒn history and culture
Korean art (especially primary sources such as catalogs and art books)
Rare North Korean periodicals
Contemporary Korean fiction and other literature
Primary sources on the Dokdo/Takeshima controversy

Korean Studies Research Guides:

Collection Development Policy

Contact

Rebecca Mendelson

Japanese Studies Librarian rmendel@upenn.edu

Doing Research

The East Asia stacks on the fifth floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center house monographs and bound journals in Korean, while reference works are located in the East Asia Seminar Room in 526 Van Pelt. Current periodicals (unbound journals) can be found on the fourth floor of Van Pelt library (no Korean-language journals are in the seminar room). Other than Van Pelt, the University Museum Library and the Fisher Fine Arts Library hold some Korean monographs on anthropology, archaeology, art and design, and architecture.

If you need to find information on a person or author, some helpful places to start are Whoplus, NDL Authorities, and Webcat Plus (which is also a Japanese book database).