Project Name: Korean American First Wave Name Index

Sponsor:
Ken Klein (email: kklein@usc.edu; tel: 213-740-1772)

Partners:
None

Background:
This project seeks to integrate two separate but inter-related databases, the Korean American Digital Archive and a "First Wave" Name Index. The broader aim is to lay a solid foundation for organizing information about Korean Americans prior to 1965.

Problem:
The Korean American Digital Archive (KADA) provides access to a large and growing body of documents, photographs, and other materials relating to Koreans in the United States prior to 1965. In an effort to provide better access to this archive, we have assembled a database MS Access of over 7500 names of Korean Americans of the First Wave (Korean born in or immigrated to the United States prior to 1965, or descended from them), including alternative names. This database ("Name Index") is meant to serve as a thesaurus for the indexing of items in KADA. Although the KADA database has been developed within the structure of an MS Access, relational database, it will soon be migrating to ISDs new Cataloging Information System (CIS) and this thesaurus will have to be adapted to fit within that new environment. We also, though, hope to enhance the utility of this Name Index, making it possible to more conveniently display direct data on individuals (birth date, death date, birthplace, alternative names, etc.) and show genealogical and marriage relationships.

Constraints:
None specified.

Desired Deliverables:
1. Links between personal names in the Name Index and relevant archival materials in KADA, as well as the ability to easily make inquiries, while searching in KADA, about the identities of names encountered therein.

2. A search engine, mountable on the Internet, for the Name Index which will yield available genealogical information.

3. A secure and efficient method for adding and editing data to the Name Index.