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Korean Studies

Welcome

Happy New Year 2024! 

I hope everything is going well with all of you.  I am available on site and virtually to help you with your research questions and resources. Please send me an email at li_wang@brown.edu should you have any questions, or need to set an appointment for research consultation. We can set a personal or Zoom meeting if needed.  Thank you and have a great season!

Quick Links

Searching in Korean
For research in Korean, searching by Romanization is a reliable way to find Korean materials in BurKnow and such databases as WorldCat.  Use an authoritative dictionary for Romanization or refer to ALA-LC Romanization Tables for Korean, which library catalogers follow.  If you are not familiar with Romanization, search by Korean script. Non-Roman characters and syllables can be searched as keyword, author names, and titles though all subject headings are in English.  For more information on searching in non-Roman languages, see this guide by Yale University Library.

Korean Romanization Converter

  1. Korean alphabet  → Roman alphabet
  2. Revised Romanization of Korean → McCune-Reischauer Romanization
  3. McCune-Reischauer Romanization → Revised Romanization of Korean

McCune-Reischauer Romanization Rules

Calendar Conversion for C-J-K Dates to Western by USC Library

Dictionaries and Reference Materials

Dictionary

Glossary of Korean Studies (한국학 영문 용어 용례사전)

Daum Dictionary (다음 사전)

NAVER Hanja Dictionary

NAVER Korean - English Dictionary - 영어사전 - 네이버

Reference Resources

Korean History: A Bibliography by Ken Robinson
Updating of and a supplement to the annotated bibliography: Studies on Korea, a Scholar's Guide, which was published in 1980 (see “I. General Bibliographies”) classical literature.

East Asia Image Collection
Edited by Prof. Paul D. Barclay, it is an open-access archive of digitized photographs, negatives, postcards, and slides of imperial Japan (1868-1945), its Asian empire (1895-1945) and occupied Japan (1947-52).

EncyKorea (한국민족문화대백과사전)
Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Online version of Han'guk minjok munhwa tae sajon, the most frequently used encyclopedia on Korean Studies.

Encyclopedia of Korea
ANU Research Publications. By Choe-Wall, Yang Hi; Pettid, Michael J; Mueller, Mark C; Wall, Raymond F.

Korean History On-line (한국역사정보통합시스템)
Integrated digital library on Korean history.  Includes classical works, ancient documents, historical maps and official court records of the Choson Dynasty.

National Archives of Korea (대한민국 국가기록원)
Searchable database which includes over 2 million archival sources.

Who's Who in Korean History (한국역대인물종합정보시스템)
Biographical database of over 16,000 Korean historical figures from ancient to modern period.

Databases and Journals

Subscribed Databases

Other Databases

Data Portal 공공데이터포털 (formerly “Korea Knowledge Portal”)
The official gateway to South Korean government documents operated by the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (한국정보문화진흥원).  This full-text database links national institutes and is searchable by keyword, author, publisher, subject, format, language, and date.

Korea Integrated News Database System (KINDS)
The most comprehensive full-text archive (1990-current) for Korean news, operated by the Korea Press Foundation. Contents include major, local, internet, and industry newspapers, magazines, and TV reports since 1990. These are fully searchable and available in full-text online.

National Digital Library 국가전자도서관 (English) (Korean)
An online catalog bringing together the collections of the National Central Library of Korea (국립중앙도서관), National Assembly Library (국회도서관), and other major libraries in Korea. Limited functionality outside Korea.

RISS (KERIS) 한술연구정보서비스
Research Information Service System is the union catalog of academic libraries in South Korea, China and Japan provided by the Korea Education & Research Information Service (한국교육학술정보원).  Books, monographs, theses, dissertations, and articles from Korean academic journals are searchable by title, author, publisher, and date.  Some of the materials are available in full-text online along with abstracts.

Newspapers

BBC Selected Newspaper Articles: South Korea
05/18/1998 to Present in Access World News Research Collection

Korean Historic Magazines and Newspapers (한국근현대 신문자료)
An integrated full-text database of Korean historical newspapers published from 1905 to 1931.

National Institute of Korean History -- Newspapers 국사편찬위원회 (In KOREAN)
NIKH provides image reproductions of 11 historical Korean newspapers including Tonga ilbo (東亞日報) (1920-1962) and Chungang ilbo (中央日報) (1931-1933). Browseable by dates and searchable by keywords.

National Library of Korea Newspaper Archives (대한민국 신문 아카이브)
A digital archive of over 80 newspapers from the 1880s through the 1960s.  Searchable by newspaper title and article title.

Naver News Library 네이버 디지털뉴스아카이브 (In KOREAN)
This archive provides access to PDF files of four Korean newspapers, including Kyŏnghyang sinmun (京鄉新聞) (1946-1999), Tonga ilbo (東亞日報) (1920-1999), Maeil kyŏngje sinmun (每日經濟新聞) (1966-1999), and Hankyure (한겨레) (1988-1999). Browseable by dates and searchable by keywords.

Language and Literature

Study Korean (스터디코리안)

The Korean Language Society (한글학회)

Korean Literature - Korean Studies Portal

DB of Korean Classics (한국고전종합DB)
Provides full-text images of ancient classics written in Hanmun (Chinese) and translated texts.

Digital Library of Korean Literature (한국문학번역원전자도서관)
Multilingual archive of Korean literature, including e-books and bibliographical information on Korean books translated and published in over 40 languages worldwide.

Korean literature - Britannica

Korean literature - Wikipedia

Films

Films related to Korean (Kanopy Films and Documentaries)

Korean Cinema (Kanopy Films and Documentaries)

HanCinema
Korean movie and drama database.

Korean Film Council (영화진흥위원회)
Korean film database searchable by title, director, actor, and year of production.

Korean Film Archive (한국영상자료원)
Korean online database of information related to Korean films, animation, television shows, actors, and production crew personnel.

Art and Culture

Cultural Heritage Research Knowledge Portal (문화유산연구지식포털)
Database of cultural heritage research compiled by the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage.

Korean National Heritage Online (국가문화유산포털)
Provides detailed information about Korean national treasures, historical documents, traditional customs and music.

Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal (한국전통지식포털)
The Korean Intellectual Property Office's database of traditional knowledge.

National Museum of Korea (국립중앙박물관)

Data, Statistics, and GIS

ECOS (경제통계)
Economic Statistics System, The Bank of Korea.

K-Stat (무역통계)

KSDC (한국사회과학데이터센터) Korean Social Science Data Center

Cultural Heritage GIS Service (문화재공간정보서비스)
A searchable GIS service which provides cultural property information. It provides not only description of cultural properties, but also photos, plans, video clips, and much more.

Special Collections and Archives

Interdisciplinary Databases

Databases Accessible from Library's Website

Requesting Articles

How to request articles not available online at Brown.

Purchase Request

A Key for Resource Icons

KEY

full text icon = Some full text
licensed icon = Licensed for Brown
audio icon = Audio Available
video icon = Video Available
mobile icon = Mobile Access Available