Access to the College Green area of campus will be restricted until further notice. Current students, faculty and staff with a valid Penn card may enter and exit Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center through the Rosengarten Undergraduate Study Center on the ground floor, and may enter and exit the Fisher Fine Arts Library through the 34th Street entrance to Meyerson Hall. 

During reading period, April 30 to May 14: Access to both Van Pelt and Fisher Fine Arts Library is limited. Find more information.

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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

Collection Description

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

Contact

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).