• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.12
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• pp.39-86
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• 1985

The main purpose of the present study is to survey the major iudexing bulletins of national nature in Korea, to define such problem areas as lacunae, duplicates and limitation in coverage in the indexing services currently available in Korea, and to make some suggestions for action for improving the existing indexing services in the light of general principles and the tradition and constraints unique to Korea. The major findings and conclusions reached at this study are summarised as follows: (A) A new indexing bulletin of general nature covering the entire field needs to be created in each of the following fields without an established indexing service available for the outcome of research and development activities in Korea. (1) Philosophy (2) Religion (3) Pure sciences (4) Art (5) Language (6) Literature (7) History (B) A new specialised indexing bulletin needs to be created in each of the following fields where indexing services are heavily utilised but no, or only partial, indexing service is available. (1) Social sciences (a) Statistics (b) Sociology (c) Folklore (d) Military science (2) Pure sciences (a) Mathematics (b) Physics (c) Chemistry (d) Astronomy (e) Geology (f) Mineralogy (g) Life sciences (h) Botany (i) Zoology (3) Applied sciences (a) Medicine (b) Agriculture (c) Civil engineering (d) Architectural engineering (e) Mechanical engineering (f) Electrical engineering (g) Chemical engineering (h) Domestic science (C) Publication of the indexing bulletins suggested in A and B above may be ideally carried on by a qualified and dependable learned society established in the respective fields and designated by the Minister of Education, and should be financially supported from the public fund under the provisions of Art. 27 of the Scientific Research Promotion Act of 1979. (D) The coverage and contents of the four indexing bulletins in the field of banking and financing published by the Library of the Bank of Korea are similar and considerably duplicated. It is, therefore, suggested that the four indexing bulletins are combined in one to form a more comprehensive and efficient bibliographical tool in the field and it is further developed into a general guide to the literature produced in the entire field of economics in Korea by gradually expanding its subject coverage. (E) For the similar reasons stated in D, the Index to the Articles on North Korea and the Catalogue of Theses on North Korea, both publisheds by the Ministry of Unification Library, are suggested to make into one. The Index to the Articles of the Selected North Korean Journals and the Index to the Articles of the North Korean Journals in Microfilm Housed in the Ministry of Unification Library, both published by the same Library, are also suggested to be combined in one. (F) The contents of the Catalogue of the Reports Submitted by Government Officials Who Have Travelled Abroad, published by the National Archives are included in the Index to the Information Materials Related to Government Administration, published by the National Archives. The publication of the former is hardly justified. (G) The contents of the Index to Legal Literature published by the Seoul National University Libraries and those of the Law Section of the Index to Scholastic Works published by the National Central Library are nearly identical. One of the two indexes should cease to be published. (H) Though five indexes are being published in the field of political science and four in the field of public administration, their subject coverage is limited. Naturally, these indexes are little usable to many other researchers in the two fields. A comprehensive index covering all the specialised areas in each field needs to be developed on one or all the existing indexes. (I) It is suggested that the Catalogue of the Scholastic Works on Curricula published by the National Central Library expands its subject coverage to become a more usable and effective index to all the researchers in the field of education. (J) The bimonthly Index to Periodical Articles and the specialised index by subject series published by the National Assembly Library, and the Index to Scholastic Works published by the National Central Library are expected to increase their coverage and frequency of publication to be used more effectively and more efficiently by all users in all fields till the indexing bulletins suggested in this study will fully be available in Korea.