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Guide to Searching Korean Materials in PITTCat

 

How to enter search terms in Korean characters

You’ll need to choose Korean Input Method Editor (IME) available on most computers in the library and the computer labs. Once you choose KOREAN from IME, you will be able to change Korean/English by clicking the button A/ at the lower right corner of the screen or simply by pressing right Alt button on your keyboard.
Which search method retrieves the most results

Currently on PittCat, Korean characters can be used as search terms. Patrons can simply change Input Method into Korean and type Korean words in search box.

In many cases, Korean materials contain Chinese character(한자) in their titles and author’ names. In these cases, Korean character input in search will not work. Eg. Using the term물가 only pick up records with Korean character “물가” and will not able to detect “物價” in bibliographic records.

However, searches in romanization of Korean characters will retrieve the missing hits from the Korean script. To maximize the search results, search by Romanization is recommended.

Which Romanization system to use

PITTCat adopts McCune-Reischauer system as the way to display romanized contents of the bibliographic records. In McCune Reischauer System, consonants and vowels are transliterated as follows.

ㄱ(k,g) ㄲ(kk) ㄴ(n) ㄷ(t,d) ㄸ(tt) ㄹ(l,r) ㅁ(m) ㅂ(p,b) ㅃ(pp) ㅅ(s)  ㅆ(ss) ㅇ(~ng) ㅈ(ch, j) ㅊ(ch) ㅋ(k) ㅌ(t) ㅍ(p) ㅎ(h)

아(a) 애(ae) 야(ya) 얘(yae) 어(o) 에(e) 여(yo) 예(ye) 오(o) 요(yo) 와(wa) 왜(wae) 외(oe) 우(u) 워(wo) 웨(we) 위(wi) 유(yu) 으(u) 의(ui) 이(i)

The basic rule to transliterate the Korean characters to the English alphabets is to romanize the word as it sounds. Eg. 신라 sounds like 실라 and, therefore, is romanized as “Silla.”

When a consonant comes in the first syllable of a word or is followed by another consonant, it sounds with a strong accent. In those cases, use alphabets with strong sound to Romanize. Eg. 금강산 is romanized as “Kumgangsan,” not “Gumgangsan.” 독도 as “TokTo,” not “DokDo.”

Detailed information about McCune-Reischauer romanization system can be found at the EAL web site at <http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/eal/Search-KOR.htm>

What to do when characters do not display properly

In most cases, you’ll just need to change the encoding under VIEW into Unicode (UTF-8).
 
What to do when diacritics do not display properly

Depending on which browser you use, there are different steps to follow.

Netscape: Choose Arial Unicode MS as the font for the browser

Internet Explorer: In addition to choosing Arial Unicode MS, please check “Ignore font styles specified on web pages” by clicking on Tools Internet Options Accessibility,

 
Tips for Searching Korean Materials on PITTCat

The following search tips apply to Korean materials only. For search tips on English materials, please refer to Guide to Searching PITTCat

Type of Search

Example

Search Tips

Title

Hanguk yoksa

한국역사

Yugyo munhwa wa Yosong

유교문화와여성

Minsok Munhwa Tae Sajon

민속 문화 대사전

  • Key in the title with exact spelling and word order. Separate the Romanization for each word.
  • Particles(조사) should be separated in Romanization, but not necessarily in Korean characters.

Author

Pak Kyong-ni / 박경리

이어령 / Yi O-ryong

Kang Chun-man / 강준만

Kim Yong-Ok / 김용옥

  • Author’s last name then first name.  
  • No need for space between last name and first name if searching by  Korean character.
  • In Romanization, space is needed between last name and first name.
  • Place a dash ( - ) between the syllables of first name in Romanization.

Keyword*

“?영화?” will have 37 hits

while 영화? will have 6 hits.

Na ui munhwa yusan tapsagi  

나의문화유산답사기

?yoksa? AND ?hanguk?

?역사? AND?한국?
  • Use the Keyword search mode when the exact word order of a title or author is uncertain or unknown.
  • Put “?” mark before and after the search term to maximize search results.
  • Choose ”as a phrase” instead of “any of these” or “all of these” for more accurate results.
  • One search box for one phrase.
  • Use either AND, OR, or NOT to connect two or more search boxes.
*Note to Keyword Search:
  1. On PITTCat, Korean Characters are treated as English Alphabets in which one single letter does not mean anything in most cases. Entering one character might not pick up as many results as it should be. Therefore, the whole word or phrase should be used.
  2. Also, to enhance search capability, using “truncation function” in search with “?” mark will help to retrieve more results. Eg. Entering “?역사?” in Keyword search will pick up materials with keywords that begin or end with “역사,” such as “고려역사,” “역사연구.” “?” mark indicates there is more characters, and therefore, “?역사” means there should be more characters before the term ”역사.”

 

Special Note on Printing, Saving and E-mailing Search Results

 It is possible to successfully print or save Korean scripts using the "Save, Print or E-mail Records" function of PITTCat (found at the bottom of search results and single record displays). However, at this time it is not possible to retain Korean scripts or diacritic marks when E-mailing records.                                                                         

 

Related Links
Guide on Searching for Korean Materials on PITTCat (PDF)
Guide on Korean Romanization (PDF)
Guide on Searching for Japanese Materials on PITTCat
Guide on Searching for Chinese Materials on PITTCat
Guide on Searching Western Materials on PITTCat (PDF)

 

Note:
To view all these files listed here, please make sure you have Chinese language support on your computer or East Asian languages support for your Adobe Acrobat Reader. To get the Acrobat Reader software, please visit Adobe company website. (http://www.adobe.com/acrobat/)