• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.189-206
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze the current states and characteristics of the information poor related to library and information services in Korea. This study aims to help libraries and the related authorities understand better the information poor and develop strategies customized with the specific needs of various subgroups, by examining the definitions of major terms from laws, regulations and literatures. This study confirms that most of the information poor have more than one disadvantage, and each subgroup has its own uniqueness and diverse subgroups. It also emphasizes that libraries should take into consideration their uniqueness and multiple difficulties, and develop more user-centered library and information services in order to resolve the information gap.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.335-354
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• 2009

In the knowledge and information society, there is an increasing importance of information, being unable to access this information becomes a huge disadvantage. Blind and visually impaired users who are using assistant equipment such as screen readers are the very class that is having trouble accessing the web content that public libraries provide. In this research 10% of each region's libraries were picked as a research sample. Most of the web content that the public libraries provided did not meet the Internet web content accessibility guidelines as a Korean standard. Also evaluation into web accessibility by the visually impaired was also low. This research suggests some solutions for libraries to reduce the disadvantages that are put upon visually impaired people from various views such as perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.25-43
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• 2013

South Korea has fewer public libraries than other developed nations of OECD. This calls for a more diverse role of school libraries in the geographically isolated areas. School libraries should provides services for not only its students and faculty, but also the surrounding neighborhood as a part of cultural community. Based on the needs for an expanded role of school libraries, this research aims to identify the necessary factors for school libraries to provide services to their local residents. Two things should be identified for this research. First, we should confirm the necessity of policies that provide library services to local residents of school libraries. Second, we should propose a way to have the libraries as a part of cultural community where meet the information and cultural demand of their local residents. The study surveyed users, school principals and working-level staff members of cultural communities in order to study the two questions. These groups were from Uri-school Village Library, which is supported by the NHN Culture Foundation. Through the survey, the research confirmed the need for a consistent outside assistance, job training, open door policy for local residents and diverse library services in order for school libraries to serve their local community.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.1-31
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• 2019

The purpose of this article is to find out both strategies and methods that Korean libraries could be reborn and recognized as an essential public good for the information poor. To the end, the first discussion is about the Korean society's intrinsic standpoints on social minorities and information poverty. And the second discussion is on how the Korean library community has approached and met with the information poverty issues of social minorities. Special concerns are on analysing the achievements and limitations of Korean library policies for social minorities. Also investigated are the indigenous factors that have impeded the further development of library services for the information poor. And finally this article requests for scholarly efforts to strengthen the theoretical basis of library policies for social minorities, together with strategic suggestions for Korean librarians who wish to renovate their specialized services for social minorities.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.203-220
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• 2020

With the COVID-19 pandemic being prolonged, the society is being converted into an untact society, thereby affecting the service methodology of domestic and foreign library systems. This study thus surveyed the librarians' awareness of COVID-19 response measures of public libraries, and proposed public libraries' response measures in situations where the novel infectious disease is spreading and prolonging. Specifically, the proposed measures include, first, preparing national-centered library countermeasures to jointly respond to the epidemic disease, second, strengthening various untact and online services of various public libraries through government-level budget support, third, a thorough prevention of epidemics and preemptive response from the viewpoint of employees and users, and fourth, the expansion of library services aimed at resolving the digital cultural divide among classes of people, including information unfairness.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.79-102
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• 2021

This research is based on open data from the National Library Statistics System and Seoul Survey 2020 from Seoul to analyze the Seoul citizens' usage of public libraries. For such purposes, this research compared and diagnosed the condition of public libraries services at 25 districts of Seoul, focusing on objective indicators of library management and general usage records to understand the correlations between the two. Objective indicators such as budgets, human labor, the number of books, and total ground area were compared with usage records of different classes of Seoul citizens, organized by the citizens' place of living, educational background, and monthly household income. As a result of the research, the correlation between the objective indicators and public usage records of different classes was confirmed. Seoul citizens' usage of public libraries and reading tendency were identified. In addition to, a balanced development of the public libraries in Seoul was proposed to overcome regional disparities and leveling the service level by investigating usage behavior and reading tendency of the public libraries in Seoul.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.215-246
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• 2017

Alternative materials for the visually disabled are very important factors for accessing and using information, dissolving the knowledge information gap, social participation and integration. Nevertheless, since alternative materials have been produced, until recently, even under the voluntary efforts of the braille library and the financial support of local governments, the scope of the materials is restricted to literary materials and hobby books, duplicated in title, and limited in format. In this study, we investigated and analyzed the cases of domestic and international library and related organizations' alternative material production and the current state and perception of alternative materials by applying the survey method to special libraries for the visually disabled and the visually disabled. Based on these results, we added suggestions for the improvement for alternative material production and utilization.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.217-239
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• 2006

21st century is a knowledge and information society. Keeping pace with this global environment change. people demand various roles from a library First, they demand to play a role of an 'Information Connector' rather than a traditional role of a 'Book Container'. Second, they demand to be the place of the social integration for a solution to the information and learning gap and the place for a life-long learning for HRD(Human Resources Development) by the community unit. In addition, not only introducing a system of 'Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education & HRD' for national HRD and 'Five-Day Week' but the advent of 'an Aging Society' demand a change of a library. This study researches roles of a library inseparably related to such new paradigms in the life-long learning society as the knowledge. information, five-day week. aging and HRD, and shows the right direction of a library to pursue in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.89-114
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• 2021

This study analyzed the previous studies and utilization cases on library big data, and based on this, analyzed the collection/circulation data of the library big data platform and tried to derive meaningful analysis results. And five analysis indicators were selected: the increase rate of collections by annual, the composition of collections by subject, the composition of unborrowed collections by subject, the rate of borrowed collections, and use factor by subject. The analysis data is 6,722,603 cases of collection/circulation data from 33 public libraries in Busan. The main analysis results are as follows. First, it was found that the gap in the number of circulation was larger than the number of collection in the 33 public libraries. Second, the annual increase rate of collections also showed a clear decline. Third, each library showed a similar pattern in the composition of both the collections and the unborrowed collections by subject. Fourth, it was found that users' circulation were very different by subject and library. Fifth, in most libraries, the rate of circulation of collections and use factor in the natural science field were the highest.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.101-127
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• 2022

Article 31(1) of the Libraries Act(Act No. 18547), which was completely revised on December 7, 2021, stipulates that "the head of a local government or the superintendent of a city/provincial office of education must formulate a plan for the establishment and operation of a public library in advance and obtain the pre-evaluation of the feasibility of establishing a public library from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism." Through the preliminary feasibility evaluation at the construction stage of the public library, it is possible to adjust distribution to improve the adequacy of scale and resolve regional imbalances and gaps. In addition, it is expected to increase service satisfaction and operational enhancement by inducing faithful securing of core infrastructure (librarians, collection, facilities, systems, etc.) in terms of balanced regional development and public library construction. The purpose of this study is to develop and present the basic direction and feasibility evaluation model for establishment of public libraries. The proposed evaluation model is expected to secure the legal basis and institutional legitimacy of the pre-evaluation system for public library establishment and to prevent waste of tax due to poor construction and operation of public libraries.