LIBRARIAN (British): Can I help you with something?
STUDENT (British): Uh, yeah, maybe. I’m having a bit of trouble with
my research.
LIBRARIAN: What seems to be the problem, then?
STUDENT: Well, I’m writing my thesis on Korean pop
culture…primarily in the 1980s…but I really can’t find much along the lines of
academic articles in Korean.
LIBRARIAN: Wait…you read Korean?
STUDENT: Um, yes.
LIBRARIAN: Are you from Korea, or…?
STUDENT: No, no. I did my first degree there…in Seoul…and I
studied Korean language while there. Well, both Korean and Chinese, but only
two semesters of Chinese. Korean is my second language. I’m not exactly
natively fluent, but, well, I can get along just fine.
LIBRARIAN: May I ask, how many years did you have to study to
become proficient in Korean?
STUDENT: Let’s see…one year in high school and then four
years in undergrad. So, five years in total.
LIBRARIAN: That’s quite impressive. So,
now you are doing a degree that requires you to use Korean sources? Why can’t
you just look up articles in English?
STUDENT: I’m in the Asian Studies Department, and one of
the requirements of my Master’s programme is to be able to do scholarly work in
my language of study. I can use some English-language material, but at least 70
percent of my sources need to be in Korean.
LIBRARIAN: Do you write the paper in Korean as well?
STUDENT: No, I don’t have to. Some students do. I won’t,
though. That’s just too much work for me, unfortunately.
LIBRARIAN: Fair enough. Now, can you explain exactly what the
problem is when you are searching?
STUDENT: I search in the major databases, and type in
keywords in Korean. But almost nothing comes up. I thought they were global
databases.
LIBRARIAN: They are, but you might need to try different
keywords.
STUDENT: I don’t think that’s it. I have tried a variety of
terms.
LIBRARIAN: Then, it might be that Korean academic articles
are not common in the major Western databases. To be honest, this is the first
time I’ve encountered someone doing a search in Korean. Doing research in
Spanish, French, German…you know, European languages…is quite common. But not
Asian languages. I think we’re going to have to try a different approach
entirely.
LIBRARIAN: I’d like to try things. First, we can look in our
foreign language archive. You never know what you’ll find there.
STUDENT: I didn’t realize there was such a thing.
LIBRARIAN: Most people don’t! On the 7th storey we
have a section dedicated to journals, books, newspapers, sound clips, and other
materials that faculty or students have collected over the years. Since our
Asian Studies Department is a significant size, I wouldn’t be surprised if
you’ll find a thing or two in there.
STUDENT: Am I allowed to check those materials out of the
library?
LIBRARIAN: No, unfortunately anything from the archives has
to stay. But you can spend all of the time you want there.
STUDENT: OK.
LIBRARIAN: Another option is to work with one of our partner
universities in Korea.
STUDENT: I didn’t realise we even had such things.
LIBRARIAN: We have three partners over there. Two in Seoul,
and one in a smaller city. This kind of situation is exactly what the
partnerships were established for…you know, to share resources.
STUDENT: That’s great.
LIBRARIAN: What I can do is get in touch with my contacts
with the respective libraries, and ask them to do searches based on the
criteria you provide me with. Then they will send me any relevant articles or
other documents they find through our interlibrary loan system.
STUDENT: Brilliant! But…how long will that take? I have
some pretty tight deadlines.
LIBRARIAN: Well, I’ve never actually contacted these specific
individuals before, but at other universities it is a rather quick process. I
usually hear something within a few days.
STUDENT: Then, should I write something up for you right
now?
LIBRARIAN: That would be good. I think a one-page description
of your research topic should suffice. And perhaps a list of search terms as
well. I obviously don’t read Korean, so I’ll just take whatever you give me and
pass it on.
STUDENT: All right. Give me about 30 minutes.
LIBRARIAN: No problem. I’m not going anywhere!