Korean Classics Indexing Project: from Departmental to International Collaboration

1. Korean Classics Indexing Project: from Departmental to International Collaboration PRDLA 2010, Shanghai 21 October 2010 Professor Steve Ching (景祥祜) Celine Cheung (張曉寧) Run Run Shaw Library, City University of Hong Kong

2. HanggukYoktaeMunjipChongso《韓國歷代文集叢書》

3. Comprehensive resources on Korean culture that records Sino-Korean Relationship written in classical Chinese by thousands of Korean authors Covers works from 7th century to early 20th century Covers philosophy, history, arts, politics, social sciences, economy, military, geography, astrology, and more Values: High research value for Sino-Korean relationship studies An important source of materials for East Asian studies and Confucianism development studies Highly attracted to local scholars and students as well as visiting researchers from overseas and Mainland China HanggukYoktaeMunjipChongso《韓國歷代文集叢書》 3

4. HanggukYoktaeMunjipChongso《韓國歷代文集叢書》 A treasure house of resources of cultural exchange history between Korea and China • Presented to Chinese scholars how China was known to and remembered by Korean at the ancient time • Some historical information about China were not recorded or only briefly recorded in the Chinese historical documents • Valuable supplementary materials for scholars in studying Chinese history, culture, philosophy, and foreign relations from the perspective of foreigners • Valuable for studying the development / spread of Confucianism in the East Asia region 4

5. Shift of Korean writing

6. Shift of Korean writing • 우리가 관심을 갖는 문사철 영역 속의 고대 한적의 연구에 대해 말하자면, 한국학자의 고대중국 한적의 연구는 일제시대나 독립후인 1980년 이전까지와 비교하면 아주 크게 증가했다고 할 수 있으니, 이는 전에는 상상하기도 어려운 일이었다.

7. Shift of Korean writing • Issues • Gap: today’s readers may have problems to understand/interpretate the Korean classic works written in Chinese • Gap: today’s readers may have problems to search the publications of Korean classic works written in Chinese

8. HanggukYoktaeMunjipChongso《韓國歷代文集叢書》 • Works in this set of anthologies were all written in Chinese in various literature formats • Essays • Poems • Religious works • Memorials • family pedigrees • And more

9. HanggukYoktaeMunjipChongso《韓國歷代文集叢書》 • Reading and interpretation difficulties • For Chinese • For Korean • For other people

10. Classical Chinese script Traditional Chinese Characters (versus simplified Chinese now used in PRC) Ancient words (seldom used nowadays, uncommon to modern people Being a Chinese not necessarily means that one will understand the content Examples of poems in volume 7 Library, City University of Hong Kong 10

11. Discovering valuable knowledge in “HangukYoktaeMunjipMunjipChongso”《韓國歷代文集叢書》is not straightforward, we need a bridge ……

12. The aim is to make the treasurable resources well known to and be efficientlyused by the scholarly communities. to improve access to this set of scholarly research materials The expected outcome is that the index would bridge between: Chinese scholars and the Korean cultural & historical resources Today’s readers and the ancient resources in classical Chinese Modern generation of Chinese and Korean and the historical Korean resources written in Chinese The project shall benefit scholars, researchers, faculties and students who plan to initiate research projects on Sino-Korean history and culture. Help today's readers and enthusiasts understand and appreciate the ancient Korean intellectual works in an effective way. Korean Classics Indexing Project – the Bridge 12

13. A cross discipline project Library professionals Academic specialists A cross language project Chinese Korean Western Korean Classics Indexing Project 13

14. A collaborative model Local partnerships - departmental International partnerships Value of collaboration Opportunities for outreach Sharing of the valuable outcomes Sharing of the responsibilities & costs Speeding up the production Providing richer content elements Korean Classics Indexing Project 14

15. A collaborative model – departmental partnership within the university Korean Classics Indexing Project 15

16. A collaborative model – international partnership Korean Classics Indexing Project 16

17. Data elements Author name and date of birth and/or date of death Title of individual work (篇名), e.g. essay title, poem title Image of the individual title Form of literature of the individual work (Ci, Fu, Jueju, Lüshi, etc.) Subject keywords Volume title Volume number Page number Korean Classics Indexing Project 17

18. Korean Classics Indexing Project • Data format • Author names & individual titles: • Original script, i.e. Chinese • Chinese Pinyin romanization • Korean script – Hangul • Korean romanization – McCune-Reischauer romanization • Form of literature & Subject keywords • Chinese script 18

19. Korean Classics Indexing Project • The indexing database will be made searchable by all the aforementioned elements and in all the data formats • It can also be published in print with specified data formats and elements when demanded 19

20. Korean Classics Indexing Project-- A sample record • The image below shows a poem in v.7: 20

21. Korean Classics Indexing Project-- A sample record • The index entries for this poem will be: 21

22. Korean Classics Indexing Project • What’s next • Expand partnership • Expand collection in similar kind • Enhance library services to increase effective usage of library materials • Contribute to scholarly communication and research activities 22

23. Anji Bridge – The oldest If a bridge of old technology can establish long-lasting connection, with new technology, perhaps we can connect the world.

24. Thank you! hsching@cityu.edu.hk lbceline@cityu.edu.hk