• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.221-239
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to review the current status of disseminating knowledge on Korean people by analyzing biographies for juvenile and general audiences with the subject term 'Korea' in WorldCat. Languages and topics of 15,007 bibliographic records and topic facets, biographees, and holding libraries in the U.S. of 487 biographies for juvenile audiences were analyzed. Major findings are as follows: 1) 30 English biographies are held by may libraries in the U.S. and the most popular subjects are Kim Il-song and Kim Jong-il, 2) 457 Korean biographies are not held by many libraries, and King Sejong and the General Yi Sun-sin are the most popular subjects, 3) many Korean biographies are picture books for the very young readers with the focus on Korean folklores and anecdotal biographies, and 4) there are some errors in topic facets, dispersion of biographees, and inaccurate holding lists of bibliographic records. Therefore, there seems to be little to read with an interest and promote the diffusion of knowledge on Korean people through libraries.