Korea University Library receives 2018 Karl Lo Award
For its case study on the development project of a future-oriented scholarly information curation service
Unprecedented innovation throughout history

Korea University Library received the 2018 Karl Lo Award from the Pacific Rim Research Libraries Alliance (PRRLA) for its case study on the development of the Scholarly Information Curation Service (SICS).

PRRLA, an international organization comprised of libraries from major universities and other academic institutions in the Asia-Pacific region – including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and Peking University – presents the annual Karl Lo Award, named after its founder, to in-service librarians to honor their excellence in research and/or profession developments.

Korea University Research & Scholarly Information Department applied for the Award by submitting its case study on the development of SICS.

SICS, developed and run by the Korea University Library, automatically gathers academic research materials available on the internet on a real-time basis, and categorizes them according to topics and areas of study.

SICS is an unprecedented, future-oriented service launched by a single academic research institution that offers a combination of conventional online scholarly information services for libraries and the increasing data curation technology. Its case, first presented at the 2017 Poland Conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) – whose membership embraces 1,700 academic information institutions from over 150 countries – has grabbed the attention of the world’s library and information scientists for being an innovative application of data curation – a new, rising field of information technology – to a scholarly information service.

Currently, SICS provides scholarly information in 8 categories – media, law, psychology, computer science, economics, pedagogy, linguistics, and political science and international relations.

Plans are in place to add new areas of study to the service each year. The 2018 Karl Lo Award is of notable significance since it indicates that the value and vision of SICS has been duly recognized by the scholarly information science international community.

Karl Lo Award recipients receive a research fund of $4,000 and the opportunity to present research at the 2018 PRRLA Meeting, scheduled to take place at UC Berkeley.

Seongcheol Kim, Director of the Korea University Library said, “To keep abreast of Korea University, its library is also devoted to international exchange and cooperation, and has publicized its advanced services. Receiving the 2018 Karl Lo Award is exactly the fruit of such challenges.”

The Korea University Library has established itself as a leading academic institution in Korea by receiving the following recognitions: 2014 Medal of the Minister of Education by the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS); 2014 Korea Library Award by the Korean Library Association; 2015 Medal of the KERIS Director by KERIS. In addition, the Korea University Library has endeavored to reframe the concept of libraries. Examples of this include its recent agreement on mutual cooperation with the Yonsei University for the sharing of academic resources and information and communications technology (ICT) as part of its engagement in the paradigm shift in higher education. Other examples include the CJ Creator Library (CCL), which has such unconventional spaces such as individual media studios, an audience hall for academic and cultural events, Marushimto, a rest-and-study area where students can lie down, and resizable carrels. The Korea University CCL constitutes a new industry-education cooperation model, where the university offers space and human resources and corporations build facilities to offer new experiences, the outcome of which is shared by the whole community, thereby reframing the concept of libraries as being simple reserves of information waiting to be accessed, to libraries as academic and cultural complexes where students themselves produce and distribute information.