• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.67-74
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• 2015

Due to an inability to accommodate for the rapidly increasing number of printed materials, Korean academic libraries are facing serious space shortage problems. Very few academic institutions have the funds to expand existing libraries or construct new facilities in order to accommodate the influx of printed materials. Despite not having the luxury to create new space, many establishments continue to implement the open access system. Seeing that such a system is only user friendly when used in a spacious facility, the maintenance of the open access system is unreasonable. Only few libraries consider the space efficient closed access system which helps to resolve storage space shortage. In the current state of the problem, improving the efficiency to which books are stored in existing storage areas within a library facility is the only appropriate solution. Enacting methods to improve physical space utilization within a fixed volume library facility will undoubtedly diminish the space shortage issue at hand. In this article, several space efficiency improvement approaches are discussed. Methods of book storage plan re-layout (floor, plan, ceiling, height, bookshelf design), book arrangement possibilities, and the reduction of the physical volume of reserved materials are each examined.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.17-24
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• 2016

Since the users have direct access to search and browse freely, the open access system has been employed to all the usual modern libraries. However, library space shortage problem created by the continuously increasing printed materials caused the degradation of usability and quality of the library space. Open Access system is superior in user convenience but is inferior in space efficiency. Keeping the open access system is considered as one of the reasons of the space shortage problem. Even though the closed access system does not provide free access or easy browsing for the uses, it's space efficiency is much higher than the open access system. The closed access system should be employed as a plan to relieve space shortage problem. Since the closed access system does not allow the public direct access to books, it is very economical. It also provides much better space efficiency with higher book shelving density. In this article, closed access library system models and their characteristics are examined as the reduction plans for the library space shortage problems.