Abstract

Based on the analysis of historical backgrounds and terms of Taekwondo, this study was conducted to analyze the characteristics of cataloging records related to Taekwondo in 53 national libraries of each country. The results are as follows. To begin with, while most of the Taekwondo-related records are concentrated in some specific national libraries such as the United States, Germany, Republic of China, United Kingdom, and Spain, there are four libraries that do not have one. Second, the title keyword of Taekwondo-related records was 93.5% for the term that directly meant Taekwondo and 6.5% for Korean martial art, Korean art of self-defense, and Korean karate etc. The frequency of materials by language is 38.7% for English and 8~9% for German, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean, respectively. The Roman translation for Taekwondo is 50.3% for 'Taekwondo', and 18.5% for 'Tae kwon do'. Third, the subject heading of Taekwondo-related records was 86.9% for 'Tae kwon do' or 'Taekwondo' etc. 7.6% for 'karate', 5.7% for general subject heading, and 12.0% for blank. This means that some national libraries misunderstand Taekwondo as karate.