• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.125-145
• /
• 2014

As Korea becomes a multi-cultural society, Korean government ministries are enforcing various multi-cultural services. Especially, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which is in charge of public libraries, is operating multi-cultural services for cultural diversity. The trends in the research on the multi-cultural services in public libraries, however, are rather on adaptation of the multi-cultural people in Korea than on the cultural diversity. In this exploratory study, we investigated the perception of local residences on multi-cultural library services with several in-depth interviews with the local residences not only for the adaptation but also for the cultural diversity. The results shows that they tended to regard public libraries as an institution of local life-long education, and then they think public libraries can take a role for coping with social adaptation and prevention of social problems in terms of multi-cultural population. Based on the results, public libraries would better consider to inform their roles in this multi-cultural society to their local residences based not only on adaptation but also on cultural diversity. For this, the libraries would develop programs, in which both multi-cultural and non-multi-cultural people can be participated, to encourage communication between them.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.245-266
• /
• 2021

In this study, in order to practice the social inclusion of libraries, the related policies currently announced in the 3rd Comprehensive Library Development Plan were examined, and the current status of tasks promoted by central administrative agencies and metropolitan and provincial libraries was examined based on these policies. As a result, first, in terms of active information welfare realization, various programs and services are being implemented to bridge the knowledge and information gap, but it seems that the scope of the target should be expanded in the future, cooperation with related organizations, and infrastructure improvement. Second, in terms of expanding the openness of the space, the expansion of the open space as an open space and the application of universal design are being performed. In the future, it seems that the scope of universal design application should be expanded in consideration of budget investment for continuous space reconstruction and diversity of users. Third, in terms of linking services across boundaries, services and programs are provided to infants and toddlers, children, women, the elderly, the underprivileged, job seekers, and multicultural families. In the future, it seems that the improvement of the service system for the expansion of inclusive services in libraries should precede, and cooperation between related ministries should be made to provide differentiated services. Finally, it is expected that future policy-making tasks for social inclusion should be considered not only for books, programs, and spaces, but also for librarians' education, establishment of cooperative networks with related organizations, and marketing for services and programs.