USC Korean Heritage Library 40th Anniversary: Looking Back, Moving Forward

Forty years ago, a small collection of Korean-language materials found a home at USC. Today, the Korean Heritage Library holds one of the most significant records of Korean American life anywhere—immigrant newspapers, family albums, independence movement documents, and the letters and photographs that families entrusted to us so future generations would know where they came from.

Over the past four decades, the Korean Heritage Library has also become a vital resource for Korean Studies, supporting scholars, students, and educators around the world through its unique collections, archival resources, and digital initiatives. By preserving and providing access to these materials, the Library has advanced research, teaching, and new scholarship on Korea and the Korean diaspora.

That preservation has never been the work of the USC Libraries alone. It has been the work of a community that recognized its own history was worth preserving, and of everyone who joined in that effort and made it possible.

Please join us as we honor forty years of stewardship, celebrate the partnerships that have strengthened Korean Studies and Korean American community, and continue building the record we will pass on to future generations in perpetuity.