Karl Lo was born on April 28, 1935, in Zhong Shan, Guandong, China. He graduated from the St. Paul's Co-educational College (High School) and later received his Bachelors degree in Chemistry at the Chung Chi College, Hong Kong, in 1958. He earned his Masters degree in Library Service at Atlanta University in 1960. After briefly serving as a bibliographer, he quickly became the head of the East Asia Library at the University of Kansas from 1959-1968. He later served as the head of the East Asia Library at the University of Washington from 1968-1990. Lo was the Director of the IR/PS Library and East Asia Collection at UCSD from 1990 until his retirement in 2002. From March to September 2002, Karl was appointed as the Acting Chief of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress.

Karl Lo

Lo also served as Chair of the OCLC-CJK Users Group, Vice President of Chinese Historical Society (Seattle, WA), and Board Member of the San Diego Chinese Historical Society.

He was Honorary Professor, Northwest Normal University, Xian, China, 1982 ; Consultant, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 1987; and Trustee of the Lingnan Foundation from 1994-2007. He was granted a CALA/ALA (Chinese American Librarians Association/American Librarians Association) Distinguished Service Award in 1998.

His major publications include Chinese Newspapers Published in North America, 1854-1975, compiled with H.M. Lai, Bibliographic Series, No. 15, Washington, D.C., Center for Chinese Research Materials, 1977.

Karl Lo passed away on February 21, 2007 in San Diego, California. (Contributed by Jim Cheng, Head, International Relations and Pacific Studies Library/East Asian Collection University of California, San Diego).