Korean Studies Program

 

The Korean Studies Program (http://ksp.stanford.edu/) was established at Stanford four years ago (2001) and is a small, but growing and important part of the University’s East Asian studies focus. At present, Stanford has one tenured faculty member (Gi-Wook Shin, http://ksp.stanford.edu/people/giwookshin/), two research fellows, and one language instructor in Korean Studies. Stanford also has many faculty and senior fellows who have done policy-related research on Korea. Under a new program that features "distinguished practitioners," the Korean Studies Program brings high profile individuals with extensive Korea experience to Stanford to teach.

As a response, the Stanford University Libraries has made a commitment to support this new area of study and research at the university. Our first librarian for Korean studies, Mikyung Kang, began working for us last September and since then has already spent much time in Korea making arrangements with dealers and others to establish this new and important collection.  It is our hope to have 10,000 titles available within a year or so. The University Libraries has also committed to hiring a professional cataloger in Korean studies for at least two years to make sure new acquisitions quickly become available to the Stanford community.  Our new Korean collection will also soon be joining the Korean Collection Consortium of North America.  The Consortium consists of the ten most important academic libraries in Korean studies in North America.  Membership in the Consortium is a signal that a given library is a major and serious place for Korean studies.

For more information on Korean resources in the East Asia Library, contact Mikyung Kang (East Asia Library-Korea); mkkang@stanford.edu,  724-5934.