Pae 12
University Daily Kansan Friday, November 10, 1961
KU Librarian Tries to Help
Lo Kwok-bong (Karl Lo to his local acquaintances) is an unassuming young man with an engrossing mission. He is trying to help chemical researchers "find the pepper."
Mr. Lo, a 26-year-old native of mainland China, is a professional librarian on the permanent staff of Watson Memorial Library.
LIKE MILLIONS of his American counterparts, he loves to dabble in cooking, but his mission has nothing to do with the culinary arts.
Moreover, Mr. Lo isn't casting an asperation at the table manners or general intelligence of workers in chemical research.
On the contrary, his early training, which includes an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Chung Chi College in Hong Kong, puts him in sympathy with their problems.
HE USES THE "PEPPER" simile to make a vivid picture for the layman of his off-duty efforts to devise a highly technical system of library classification for chemical literature.
The mild-mannered Mr. Lo, with patience and understanding for the uninitiated, puts it this way:
"Suppose the pepper represents some literature on a very specialized phase of chemistry. . . .
"That pepper is almost microscopic in the many ingredients that represent the whole field of chemical literature.
"What I hope to do is make it easier for the researcher to find the pepper."
IN A RECENT INTERVIEW which took place over 10 cups of coffee—in his three years in the U.S. he has come to enjoy it as well as his native tea—he explained how he came to take on a job, which to his knowledge, no one else has successfully accomplished.
It started, more or less, when he was a library student assistant at Chung Chi in his junior and senior years. That began his move away from his original interest in chemistry to that of librarianship.
WHEN HE WAS graduated from Chung Chi in 1958, a professor of physics helped arrange admission for Mr. Lo to do graduate work in Library science at Atlanta (Ga.) University, a graduate center for Southern Negro colleges.
Traveling was no new experience to Mr. Lo. His family had fled their home in Chung-san, Kwangtung, near the south coast of China, in the early 1940s when China was invaded by the Japanese.
The family—his father was a successful business man—settled first in Hong Kong and later, when that city was also invaded, sought refuge in the Portuguese colony of Macao.
WHILE MR. LO HAD few trepidations about his first trip outside the Orient, he confessed to being "happy and surprised that in America the people have a sensitive awareness of foreign relations and go out of their way to help anyone with a foreign accent."
He had several advantages in making the move, however. He had studied the English language from an early age at school and several of the professors at Chung Chi College were Americans.
It was at Atlanta, where he eventually obtained his master's degree in librarianship, that Mr. Lo first began toying with the chemical literature classification scheme. He used it as the subject for his graduate thesis.
IN ANY GIVEN FIELD, he explains, the volume of written material, books, pamphlets, and research papers eventually outgrows standard library classification systems.
When that happens, an advanced researcher may have to spend a lot of frustrating time searching the stacks for some material he is seeking.
Using the chemical abstracts as his starting point, Mr. Lo hopes to
Dedication
STANFORD, Calif — (UPI) — A water fountain has been dedicated to the memory of Glenn S. (Pop) Warner, Stanford University's colorful football coach from 1924 to 1932.
The fountain stands near the entrance to a gate to Stanford stadium. It was dedicated by the school's "Block S" society.
devise a system that enables the researcher to know exactly where to go for a specific work.
HE STARTED ABOUT four months ago, using his thesis as a foundation, and estimates his project will take at least another year.
The new system, he said, demands an entirely new code method and must be flexible enough to allow for expansion far into the future.
COULD WATSON Library benefit from such a new plan?
Not likely, Mr. Lo explains. For one thing, the university library is already committed to long established classification methods and the amount of work involved in a changeover would make it impracticable.
But the large research centers and laboratories, most of which have their own specialized libraries, might profitably use a comprehensive classification system.
His principal job is cataloguing Oriental material, but his knowledge of Chinese and Japanese makes him an asset to other departments of the library as well, particularly in acquisitions.
Mr. Lo's particular work sanctum at Watson is two huge vault-like rooms on the main floor behind a massive Gothic wooden door labeled simply "Preparations Dept."
SHORTLY AFTER he began working at the *KU Library two years ago, Mr. Lo tried to stimulate exchanges between KU and library
and educational institutions in Red China.
A common practice among libraries, the exchange system involves a trade of pamphlets, magazines and academic publications.
But the results were discouraging. Most of his "feelers" to Red China libraries went unanswered, he explains.
"The four basic classifications of the traditional system, which is not in use anymore, were Classics, History, Philosophy and Religion, and Miscellaneous. . . .
WHAT WILL BE his next step if he succeeds in slaying the dragon of chemical literature? Nothing less than trying to classify the total product of literature from China's 4,000 year history.
"The Harvard-Yenching system is a modification of the Imperial system, retaining the first, second and third classifications and expanding miscellaneous. . ."
Since the interview started over several cups of coffee and shifted to pepper, it was perhaps natural that it ended on a gourmet's note with a general discussion of Chinese food.
"Rice is basic to Chinese dishes, how do you spice it?" In some such foolish manner the question was posed.
Mr. Lo, a bachelor who does most of his own food preparation, flashed a broad grin over a young but normally serious looking face. His answer was gentle, terse and condescending: "Don't spice the rice."
FINDING THE PEPPER—Karl Lo, the KU librarian shown above, is working on an ambitious scheme to help chemists in their research.
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