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Undergraduate Guide to Korean Studies

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Email: libraries@colorado.edu

Japanese & Korean Studies Librarian

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Adam Lisbon
Contact:
303-492-8822

How do I keep track of the resources I find?

You can use Zotero. It's free software that works with your browser to make tracking your sources and citing them later much easier. Check out the Libraries guide on using Zotero.

Example Topic to Demonstrate Searching for Books

Example Topic: Proletarian Literature

In Korea, this refers to the literary movement that followed the county's annexation by Japan in 1910. It flourished through the late1920s, early 1930s.

Remember to consider multiple key word searches

Limit Your Search to Books (part 1 of 2)

A simple search of "proletarian literature korea" will provide a list of materials:

There should be about 15,500 results if you search "proletariat literature korea"

You can and should use the filters on the left of the search results to narrow down the materials you will browse. Click the Book / eBook filter in the Content Type section.

Use Filters to Limit Results to Books Only

The results will drop down to about 30. This is much more manageable and browseable. Most good searches should actually return a small (but not too small) number of books. (★ Jump to how to limit search results to ONLY eBooks.)

One of the first English language books you should come across is:

Use all the Features of the Libraries Search Engine to Discover More Books (Part 2 of 2)

Be sure to check "More Info.”

Almost every record has a detailed "More Info" tab, It provides useful information right away, like a summary of the book, the publisher, and the books subject matter.

  • The author has likely written other books and scholarly articles on the topic.
  • Publishers: for books, a university press is usually a good sign of scholarly authority.
  • The subjects section are links that will show you what other books the Libraries owns about those topics. The subjects can teach you a lot about the topic you are exploring, like related vocabulary, important people, and important time frames connected to your topic.
  • This books happens to only be available as a physical copy.

The subject links are a powerful tool for finding more books and scholarly articles about your topic. Think of them as hashtags. Just like on social media, they bring together all the content that share the same hashtag / subject.

Each subject is linked below, try clicking them to see what other materials become available on renga:

  • Subjects broader than Korean Proletariat Litearture:
    •  
  • Subjects that include time and/or place:
    •  
  • Related Subjects:
    •  

Limit the Libraries search results to only eBooks

You may want to only look at eBooks. To do this select the "Full Text Online" and the "Book / eBook" filter.