A study of the development of the public libraries in the "Chun-Buk" province in Korea

전북지역 공공도서관의 발전책에 관한 연구

A Library is the fundamental character of culture in a country and it is also a barometer of culture in its community. Every cultural reality, however, can hardly come to fruition in a short time and so, it will be effected through a long time and tradition. This study aims at catching up how the above-mentioned public libraries have an influence on culture of its community people. For this purpose, the actual conditions of the public libraries have been investigated and analyzed and as a result of it, the problems have been reilluminated from the nation-wide point of view. And in the new changes, developing improvement measures have been tried to find. How to study was on the basis of the actual materials of the on the-spot survey, the interviews with the working officials and the response by way of questionnaire. Summing up the investigated and analyzed contents are as followings. In the above mentioned province, therefore, number of the public libraries are very limited compared with number of the people. And so, it is very essential to increase the public libraries in the province. In terms of the actual conditions, the public libraries lags far behind the other provinces in Korea from this library field. The present chronic conditions are the budgetary deficit, the collections insufficient to the legal minimal standards, the lack of professional librarians ignorance of the people and library managements by unprofessionals, etc.. This hinders the progress of the public libraries and to seculate them from the people. The improvements and the solutions to the above-mentioned problems are as follows. 1. To recruit the personnel sufficient to the legal standards and to reorganize the offices and to turn upward the highest class of librarian's position above the 4th class. 2. To secure collections sufficient to the legal standards and to strang then the extension services. 3. To organize the council composed of the chief librarians of the public libraries including the working chiefs in the province and to develop the works-in-hand of the libraries from the level of decision-making. 4. To organize the librarian training group and to study the working problems and to seek the qualified improvement of librarians. 5. The management of the public libraries in the province are, at present, der the Ministry of Education and the local government takes the financial power. So both should be shortly unified. 6. To do regularly the course of how to use library materials for the community people and to seek the inducement measures for the people through the various cultural events. 7. The public libraries organize the mutual cooperation networks and to seek the system automatized plans of free use of library materials and every library works. 8. To enlarge book mobile system actively and to infiltrate into the daily living of people deeply. Finally, what the present writer would like to speak to the chief librarians of the public libraries the human aspects of librarians should not be ignored no mater how excellent a library organization may be. In addition to this, the present writter is sure that the far-reached future of our library organization will depend on the librarians.