Libraries and Librarianship in Korea (review)

BOOK REVIEWS203 Libraries and Librarianship in Korea, by Pongsoon Lee and Young Ai Um. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. 172 pp. The lack of English reference works on various subjects pertaining to Korea often frustrates both those who are interested in Korea and those who are asked to provide the information (like this reviewer). Works on Korean librarianship are no exception. Even though there are some introductory publications on Korean librarianship, there are no comprehensive works written in English solely devoted to Korean libraries and librarianship. The two authors here, with experience in Korean libraries and library education, have thus produced a long-awaited book. They start with a brief historical description of the country, along with aspects of its cultural and social background, including the writing system, printing and publishing, and education leading to its library development. They make the point that libraries cannot be separated from "the intellectual standards and needs of society, which are supposedly based on the general public's educational attainments." Until the late nineteenth century, Korea had been a "class-structured society" in which only the privileged upper class received an education and were eligible to take the examination to be government officials. Even after modernization, Korea's education was based on textbooks and lectures, with heavy emphasis on preparing for examinations to enter the next level of education or to get a job. Accordingly, "the general public still considers libraries as places for book conservation or as study halls." These social phenomena might explain the slow development of libraries in Korea, which does not reflect "the people's zeal for education, respect for scholarship, and the cultural heritage related to books and printing." The next five chapters describe the various types of libraries: national, academic, public, special, and school libraries. The general background and present status of its organization, functions, staffing, resources, and services are provided for each type of library. Separate descriptions are given for the two national libraries, the National Central Library (Kungnip Chungang Tosögwan) and the National Assembly Library (Kukhoe Tosögwan), which between them fill the typical leading role of a national library. For each of the other types of libraries, the authors give a general account and then present the actual operations of some "representative" libraries, including any unique resources and programs. This kind of information often involves numerical data (staff size, collection size, and so forth) and comparisons between libraries . If such data had been presented in more figures and tables, readers would have an easier time trying to locate and understand it. Throughout the chapters, readers see how Korean libraries are generally 204KOREAN STUDIES, VOL. 19 organized, what the standards of collection and staff sizes are, and to what degrees those standards are met. An interesting difference between Korea and the U.S. and other western countries is that the latter tend to emphasize the reference functions of libraries, while in Korea technical processing plays a more important role. Reference services fall within the department of circulation in most Korean libraries. In the chapter on the state of bibliographic controls and services, seems to have been only minimal effort to check the accuracy and currency of some of the titles. Beginning publication dates are not given properly, and title changes are not reflected. For example, Hanguk paksa mit söksa hagwi nonmun ch'ong mongnok [List of theses for doctor's and master's degrees in Korea] has been published since 1945 (not 1969), Mungyo t'onggye yöngam (should be yönbo) changed its title to Kyoyuk t'onggye yönbo [Statistical yearbook of education] as of 1991, and the National Statistical Office's Taehan minguk t'onggye yöngam changed to Hanguk t'onggye yöngam [Korean statistical yearbook] as of 1961 (pp. 107-110). The chapter on the Korean Library Association (Hanguk Tosögwan Hyöphoe) lists its objectives, membership, organizational structure, activities, and publications. As an information provider, I would like to see an expansion of this chapter to include other associations, societies, and councils related to the library field, even if only in the form of a list with short introductions. The chapter on library education provides information on librarian...