• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.23-44
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• 2023

The word library(図書館) is a Japanese translation of the Western library or Bibliothek in the mid-Meiji period. This word has been accepted in Chinese(图书馆), Taiwan(圖書館), Korea(도서관), and Vietnam(Dđồ thư quán), which are Chinese-speaking countries. If so, when and who first introduced the term library to Japan and China? In Japan, the enlightenment thinker Fukuzawa's 『Seiyo Jijo, 1866』 is regarded as the first document to introduce the Western library, and in China, the article published in 『Qing Yi Bao, 1896』 by the reformed thinker Liang Qichao referred to as the first example. Therefore, this study traced and demonstrated the time and person in which the word library appeared, focusing on modern dictionaries, books, translations, papers, and newspaper articles that were introduced in both countries. As a result, the theory of the introduction to Fukuzawa in 1866 is wrong because Western libraries are described in various terms in many diaries and dictionaries, including Motoki's 『An English Japanese Dictionary of the Spoken Language, 1814』. Also, in China, the theory of introduction of Liang Qichao in 1896 is not true because the term library first appeared in Ryu Jeong-dam's 『A Dictionary of Loan Words and Hybrid Words in Chinese, 1884』. In the same context, it is necessary to trace and argue the history of the first use of the term library in Korea and the name of the first library in Korea established by the Busan Branch of the Japan Hongdo Association in 1901.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.1-21
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• 2021

This study traced the origin and transformation of word library linked with archives in the ancient Near East, and Greece and Rome. First, the word library has two origins. One is derived from the Latin bibliothēkē from the ancient Greek βιβλιοθήκη. The first trace is Pollux's Onomasticon in the second half of the 2nd century, and if considered as a set of literature texts, it is Lipsius's De Bibliothecis Syntagma in 1602. The other was established as an library in the early 14th century after Latin libraria (or librarium) was translated into Old French librairie (or librarie). The word library was coined by Chaucer in 1374. Second, the clay tablet repository that existed in the ancient Near East is close to an archive, but the official name is unknown. However, the Ashurbanipal clay tablet archive is far from the principle of respect for original order and origins emphasized by the archivists, so it is not a royal archive, but a prototype of the royal library. And the official name of the Library of Alexandria was 'Βιβλιοθήκη της Αλεξάνδρειας', and then it was changed to 'ALEXANDRINA BYBLIOTHECE'. Third, In ancient Greece and Rome, archives and libraries were separated. Greece libraries were at the level of a small libraries attached to gymnasiums, and had few independent titles. The names of the Roman libraries often attached to the public baths were mixed with βιβλιοθήκη and Bibliotheca. Finally, the ancient library was succeeded to the cathedral bibliothek, and was transformed into 'bayt al-hikmah' in the Islamic Empire. In Japan, China, and Korea, Japanese-Chinese word library was accepted at the end of the 19th century, but there are many issues that require follow-up research.