New Korea Foundation library grant awarded for 2012-2016

With the celebration of the New Year and the beginning of the new quarter, the Library received good news.  The Korea Foundation has awarded the Korean Collections Consortium of North America a new five-year grant to continue expanding research collections in Korean language among its member libraries, which share their collections with wider learned communities to promote and support Korean studies in North America. As a member of the Consortium, the University of Chicago Library will receive a total of $100,000 from the Foundation for the duration of the new grant cycle, 2012-2016. The renewal application was made during a period of economic downturn in Korea and many initiatives and other priorities were competing for the Foundation’s support.  Thanks to a well-coordinated effort led by the Consortium’s leadership, which involved many Korean studies librarians, East Asian library heads, university librarians and administrators as well as many faculty members at member institutions, the application was successful.  

The Korean Collections Consortium of North America was formed in 1994 with only six U. S. member libraries. It currently has 14 members in the U. S. and Canada including Harvard, the University of Washington, Berkeley, Hawaii, Columbia, the University of Southern California, Chicago, UCLA, Toronto, Michigan, Stanford, the University of British Columbia, Princeton and Duke. The University of Chicago Library joined the Consortium in 1995 and has received the grant annually from the Foundation since then.