Librarian for East Asian and Tibetan Studies Wen-ling Liu shows two visitors the Rise of Korean Wave to Global Popularity Poster in the Wells Library lobby. Photo courtesy of Noel Photos
On a gray winter’s day in late January, soft laughter and vibrant colors welcomed students into the Herman B Wells Library lobby for Remixing Our Collections: Selections from Korea. Colorful posters filled the vast exhibit cases on each side of the Wells lobby. One was devoted to the Korean musical holdings the Archives of Traditional Music (ATM) contain, while the opposite described the recent spreading of Korean culture, called "Hallya," to the globe. East Asian Studies Librarian Wen-Ling Liu explained the event “is a good opportunity for people to become aware of Korean culture and studies.” According to Liu, there are approximately 400 Korean students at Indiana University. Increasing the awareness of Korean culture is part of this year’s Arts and Humanities Remixed festival, which gives IU Libraries an opportunity to increase awareness of its unique and varied Korean holdings and Korean resources. Liu along with Area Studies Head Librarian Luis Gonzalez helped organize this year's event.
Below are some of the highlights of Remixing Our Collections: Selections from Korea --
table and looks at the quiz. Courtesy of
Noel Photos.
Media Services Associate Heather Sloan and Head of Media Services Monique Threatt prepared a Korean pop culture quiz for attendees. Do you know the population of Seoul, or the name of the retro candy popularized by Squid Game? If not, you might brush up on Korean culture with the Korean section of the Media Studies research guide made by Nicholae Cline, librarian for philosophy, and media and gender studies.
Media Services also had DVDs and other Korean-related movie materials on display. Speaking of fun, in addition to movies and pop-culture, Media Services had a poster describing Korean games.
Nursing's long history with South
Korean health care. Courtesy of
Noel Photos.
Neuro- and Health Sciences Librarian Amy Minix featured the lifelong relationship of Mildred P. Adams and Mo-Im Kim. In 1959, Dr. Adams started teaching South Korean nurses under a US State Department initative. Kim joined the IU-South Korean education program and met Adams in 1967. According to Kim, nurses in Korea used to be treated "like garbage men" before education programs intervened. Using the University Archives, Minix discovered that Kim went on to become an active member of the World Health Organization and the first nurse to serve as the South Korean Minister of Health.
If nursing and public health concern you, check out the offerings and helpful librarians at the Sciences Library and the Health Sciences Library Research Center located at the new hospital campus on the Bypass.
artists and their artwork. Courtesy of Noel
Photos.
Visual Literacy and Resources Librarian Jackie Fleming brought a presentation of Korean artists to Remixing Our Collections. All the works of art were found in ARTSTOR, a digital image library of over 2.5 million digital images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences. Fleming's presentation contains artists such as Haegue Yang, Lee Bul, Nikki S. Lee, and Jiha Moon. With ten artists altogether, Fleming was sharing the names of their art pieces on a handout given to attendees of Remixing Our Collections. If you want to know more or see Fleming's presentation, she, like all librarians, are available at the IU Libraries' directory pages.
presents Korean A & H books
held at the Wells Library.
Courtesy of Noel Photos.
The Arts and Humanities department of the IU Libraries had a display of books. History librarian Scott Libson was eager to share with students some of the Korean works from the overall collections. One of the featured books was The Vegetarian by Han Kang. A New York Times review of the novel left attendees a bit unsettled, but curious: "At first, you might eye the title and scan the first innocuous sentence — “Before my wife turned vegetarian, I thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way” — and think that the biggest risk here might be converting to vegetarianism. (I myself converted, again; we’ll see if it lasts.) But there is no end to the horrors that rattle in and out of this ferocious, magnificently death-affirming novel."
Some of the other books on display were The Human Jungle by Cho Chŏngnae, Becoming Robot by Nam June Paik, Organic Geometry by Hong Seung-Hye, and Korean Contemporary Art by Miki Wick Kim.
people to the ATM exhibit. Courtesy of Noel
Photos.
One of the most exciting exhibits at Remixing Our Collections was the eye-catching Archives of Traditional Music (ATM) display, complete with background music. Collections and Cataloging Librarian Allison McClanahan explained the first hour of music was from the ATM whereas the second hour was from the more contemporary playlist by Nicholae Cline, librarian for philosophy, and media and gender studies. Besides music accompaniment, the ATM brought artifacts from decades of Korean music: albums, books, compact disks, The Korean Suvey magazine, and even a K-pop poster.
ATM Library Assistant Sheridan King loves working at the music archive. Helping with the exhibit made her feel as though she were "putting her passions into her job." She was excited to tell students about Korean culture and music.
Reference Assistant, has fun giving
away copies of the chosen Korea
Remixed book.
Courtesy of Noel Photos.
Lino Mioni, Senior Collections/Reference Assistant for Area Studies, engaged students throughout the event, offering free copies of The Foreign Student by Susan Choi. Mioni's circular arrangment of the novel was an inviting sculpture that depleted itself as the afternoon worn on.
Along with a number of scheduled artists, Dr. Susan Choi will read from the 1998 work at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Thursday, February 10th. The event is free, but ticketed. The Foreign Student, her first novel, is the story of two intersecting lives -- one Korean and one American. Written with precision style and description, The Foreign Student addresses what it means to be human in a hostile world. One avid reader said, "The author writes with a poetic razor blade that describes scenes, emotions, and situations with exacting clarity."
brought images of their Korean items. Courtesy
of Noel Photos.
Humanities.Courtesy of Noel Photos.
The Arts and Humanities Council arrived with a variety of cookies and speciality treats from Korea.Besides the IU Libraries, several other units from the Bloomington campus joined in on the festivites. Sarah Hatcher brought a digital display of the Korean items from the collections of the Museum of Archaelogy and Anthropology.
