[KS] From Brother Anthony

Benjamin Joinau joinau at chollian.net
Thu Jun 20 05:31:39 EDT 2013


Hello,

I belong to the EHESS in Paris, which subscribes to many online bibliography
services, among them the BAS... but I have to go to our Research Center in
Paris to access most of these database and research services on the computer
of the library (online, but on the spot only! Real "glocal" paradox -
reminds me of NK Intranet). I don't know how it works in other research
centers and universities, but for "global" scholars who, like me, don't live
close to their center of affiliation, but closer to their object of research
(Korea), globalization of access to resources and mobility for researchers
is still an open question... But maybe are we very few people in my case...
Will we be in the future?
Benjamin Joinau

-----Original Message-----
From: Koreanstudies [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of
Frank Hoffmann
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 4:08 PM
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: Re: [KS] From Brother Anthony


Two thoughts and comments about two of Brother Anthony's notes below:

(2) At least half of the subscribers to this list maybe in the same 
situation Brother Anthony describes. Although, I think if you are in 
Korea and associated with a larger university there, then that 
description does not even fully apply, because leading universities 
there, same as in the U.S., subscribe to all the major online 
bibliographic and full-text services, and students and faculty does 
have access to that as long as they are logged into their university 
campus network. In many ways the situation at Korean institutions is 
actually better than anywhere else, as these universities subscribe to 
U.S. *and* Korea services. Those on the dark site of the moon are 
actually the institutions in Europe, with the exception of some private 
universities (but most universities in most European countries are 
public institutions).
What would be really really really nice would be if AKSE or any other 
group or institution would be able to work out some sort of access to 
major U.S. and Korean bibliography and full-text networks--maybe on a 
paid subscription basis, if pricing is not too outrageous. 

Related to above, but coming to one of the other points Brother Anthony 
made: 
"An actively updated open-access online bibliography of Korea-related 
publications": that, I would suggest, is by now not anymore all too 
useful and is not really necessary. *Annotated* bibliographies are 
certainly still useful, especially when looking over the rim of our own 
coffee cup from time to time. But bibliographies as such . haven't 
they been replaced nicely by those extensive online full-text and 
traditional bibliographic-only and library catalog services? You can 
easily create your very own, always up-to-date, bibliography on any 
given topic by just doing some low-level user programming of EndNote or 
similar programs, as long as you are one of those privileged ones 
having access to above mentioned sources. But even that is really a 
pretty outdated concept nowadays--to "import" work relevant 
bibliographic information and entire texts to your own computer. Both, 
publications and information about publications (bibliographies), as 
well as access (reading) is done more and more remotely, without ever 
importing anything. I do not think that in five years any student will 
still have any texts on their own computer, not even their own ones. I 
therefore suggest, as I and others did several years ago already, that 
AKSE (can't think of a better organization for that) would look into 
ways to provide access to bibliographic and full-text sources. Would 
that not be one of the most logical tasks to do if it comes to 
research? 
 

Best,
Frank Hoffmann


On Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:46:18 +0900 (KST), Brother Anthony wrote:
> Three things:
> 1. I think members of this list should read the interview by James 
> Blake Wiener of the Ancient History Encyclopedia with Dr. Mark 
> Byington, Founder and Project Director of the Early Korea Project at 
> the Korea Institute, Harvard University; it is very interesting   
> http://www.ancient.eu.com/news/3755/    In this connection, I would 
> be glad to hear privately from any who use Vimeo regarding its 
> advantages and possible limitations as a platform for our RAS lecture 
> videos.
> 
> 2. We who live in Korea would like to encourage members to post on 
> the List indications of significant recent publications in the field 
> of Korean Studies. Scholars are often shy about advertizing their own 
> publications, which is why their admirers should do it for them.  How 
> else are we going to find out about them? This was prompted by 
> surprise at a mention of Henry H. Em's recent publication The Great 
> Enterprise: Sovereignty and Historiography in Modern Korea at Duke 
> UP. I do not recall seeing anything about it on this list? And there 
> are many others. Retired amateurs (of which I am one) do not have 
> easy access to scholarly journals carrying reviews.
> 
> More broadly, is there an actively updated open-access online 
> bibliography of Korea-related publications? In particular, various 
> museums from time to time publish sumptuous volumes as catalogues for 
> special exhibitions. There are significant distribution problems 
> concerning them and we are not clear whether anyone in Korea or 
> elsewhere is listing or stocking such publications so that 
> institutional libraries, at least, can obtain them.
> 
> 3. The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch is beginning to construct 
> an e-book library, using some of my own materials, and including 
> access to the Martin Uden collection. See 
> http://www.raskb.com/content/welcome-ras-korea-e-book-library 
> 
> Brother Anthony
> President, RAS Korea
> 
> 

--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws







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