• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.69-86
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• 2020

As the South Korean government has recently announced its intention to implement a three-year policy on building additional libraries and complex community centers as the community-based everyday life SOC project, society has shed new light on libraries as public service institutions. Accordingly, this study was conducted to determine the factors affecting resident satisfaction with public libraries, intention to use, and intention to recommend public libraries, for use as basic data to increase resident satisfaction and use of public libraries in South Korea. To this end, we conducted a survey on residents who have experience with using 13 public libraries designated as regional representative libraries in South Korea. The surveyed data was verified with a structural equation using AMOS. The results were as follows. First, all factors, such as material, facility, staff, program, and service, except location and space, had a significant effect on resident satisfaction with public libraries. Second, it was found that satisfaction had a significant effect on the intention to use and intention to recommend. The results of this study may contribute to qualitatively improving public library services by reflecting the changing needs of users, as well as social trends at the working level of libraries in South Korean society.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.19-31
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• 2018

The recognition of public libraries as development partners places an onus on public libraries to provide services that will enhance national integration and development. Whereas libraries have been known to provide information resources in various formats, recent developments around the world have shown that it is no longer enough to provide information to users. Users are being encouraged to become knowledge producers and not just consumers. In this regard, libraries are rethinking their strategies. One of the consequences of this, is the creation of makerspaces: a space for creating things within the library. This paper explores the prospects of makerspaces in Nigerian public libraries. The paper identified how makerspaces could lead to national development by providing access to technology, providing opportunity for users to work together thereby promoting unity and togetherness among the citizenry of a given society as well as providing an enabling environment for people to be creative. The paper argued that makerspaces in Nigerian public libraries will lead to increased patronage and users' satisfaction, change in perception of librarians by the public, promote synergy among citizens and result in economic development.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.16-24
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• 2018

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the domain authority, number of webpages, links, and calculate the web impact factor of six public libraries of India which are fully funded by Ministry of Culture with the supervision of administration. The data for the study were collected from websites of concerned libraries with the help of a suitable search engine, Open Site Explorer. The study found that the highest domain and page authority was recorded by Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library and National Library, respectively. It also further revealed that excepting the two libraries, i.e., Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library and Delhi Public Library, the internal equity-passing links and total internal links of rest of the libraries is zero. National Library leads with maximum total links and total equity-passing links, also with the highest followed linking root domains, total linking root domains, and linking C blocks, and concludes with the web impact factor of Central Secretariat Library recording the maximum, followed by National Library and Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.297-308
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• 2011

This paper discusses the current situation of public libraries in Korea, from the viewpoint of Ranganathan's 'Five Laws of Library Science'. Public libraries have very rapidly grown in Korea in the past ten years. With an average growth rate of 5.8% per year, the number of public libraries reached to 703 in 2009, and the number of people served per library have gradually reduced every year, even if still far below other advanced countries. However, there are still some attempts to retrain people of their right to read whatever they want. In this paper, it is emphasized that in public libraries more attention and financial and strategic assistance should be given to the disadvantaged people, and the equal right to benefit from library services should be ensured. And the library as a growing organism should be balanced with the responsible library director, devoted librarians, and concerned people in the community.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.45-77
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• 2011

In this study, by performing a survey targeting public libraries' users, we analyzed the most common path to acquire health information, the users' perception about if public libraries are needed to provide CHI services, and the factors that affect users' perceptions. The results are as follows: 1) About 90% of Korean public libraries' users do not take into account public libraries as the acquisition path for CHI resources. 2) About 60% of users thought that public libraries are needed to provide CHI services. 3) The factors that affect users' perception for the necessity of public libraries providing CHI services, were their interest in health and hours of using the internet per day. 4) In addition, we analyzed differences in perception between librarians and patrons about the necessity of public libraries providing the CHI services. The result showed that there was no significant difference in their perceptions, and both groups strongly felt that public libraries must provide the CHI services.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.41-65
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• 2022

This study would understand the overall perception of our society about public libraries, analyzing the texts related to public libraries, utilizing the semantic connection network & sentiment analysis. For this purpose, this study collected data from the last five years with keywords, 'Library' and 'Lifelong Learning Center' from January 1, 2016 through November 30, 2020 through the blogs and cafés of major domestic portal sites. With the collected data, text mining, centrality of keywords, network structure, structural equipotentiality, and sensitivity analyses were conducted. As a result of the analysis, First, 'reading' and 'book' were identified as representative keywords that form the social perception of public libraries. Second, it turned out that there were keywords related to the use of the library and the untact service due to the recent spread of COVID-19. Third, in seeking a plan for the development of public libraries through the keywords drawn to have positive meanings, it is necessary to create continuous services that can form a new image of the library, breaking away from the existing fixed role and image of the library and increase the convenience of use. Fourth, facilities and facilities for library services were recognized from a neutral point of view. Fifth, the spread of infectious diseases, social distancing, and temporary closure and closure of libraries are negatively related to public libraries, and awareness of librarians has been identified as negative keywords.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.43-58
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• 2023

This article is a spinoff of a doctoral study that was completed at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) in 2018 on provision of information services to persons with visual and physical impairments in public university libraries in Kenya. The article examined how ICTs such as internet, e-resources and e-databases, word processing, websites and more were being used in public university libraries to provide access to information by visually and physically impaired persons. Data were collected from the visually and physically impaired students, University Librarians, Systems librarians, staff from disability departments and library staff who provided services to visually and physically impaired persons. The findings revealed that the visually and physically impaired persons in most of the libraries could not access information owing to lack of the necessary assistive and adaptive technologies and weak institutional support and framework. The study recommend that the libraries improve assistive technology infrastructure, embrace new assistive technologies such as telepresence robots, virtual realities and more, and put in place enabling policies and capacity building programmes for library staff to enable them to provide services to persons with impairments.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.109-147
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• 2016

This study comprehensively analyzed domestic and foreign literature related to the value and impact of libraries on education, social behavior and economic conditions, developed a survey to investigate the librarians' perception of the libraries' value and impact, and accordingly investigated the perception of librarians according to the types of libraries in which they worked, public versus university. The results showed that the impact is greatest on education and literacy with a mean score of 3.98, followed by their social impact with 3.67 and their economic impact with 3.46. When subordinate items were analyzed it was found that the librarians perceived that the role that libraries are playing in the education area is expanding and their impact on reading and literacy is becoming greater and greater. Libraries were viewed as essential elements for education and the education system. When the difference in perception related to the impact of libraries was compared by types of libraries, the librarians in public libraries tended to rate their facilities higher than the librarians working in universities on most of the items.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.137-155
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• 2012

In this study, libraries of national and public universities, libraries of private universities, libraries of colleges, public libraries of local governments were selected to measure, compare and analyze the differences in job satisfaction of librarians working in different types of libraries. As for measurement items, 10 factors for job satisfaction were chosen. In doing so, this researcher compared and analyzed the overall job satisfaction and work satisfaction, employment satisfaction, satisfaction with promotion system, satisfaction with work distribution, satisfaction with payment system, satisfaction with service system, satisfaction with facility environment, satisfaction with educational training, satisfaction with welfare system, and satisfaction with personal relations. The results of the analysis on job satisfaction with each factor by librarians working in different types of libraries are presented as follows. First, the overall job satisfaction value of the librarians was 3.940, which means relatively high satisfaction, and in terms of a type of library, libraries of private universities showed the highest value, and the next ones were found to be libraries of colleges, public libraries and libraries of national and public libraries. Secondly, regarding the ranking of the overall satisfaction with the selected 10 job satisfaction factors by different types of libraries, educational training was found to rank the highest, and the next ones were surveyed to be the job, the service system, the personal relations, the employment system, the work distribution, the facility environment, the payment system, the welfare system, and the promotion system.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.48-58
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• 2014

Public libraries provide information to all persons and its users are the inhabitants of the community it serves. This may not be the reality in some cases as some category of persons may not be properly served by the public library. This study assesses the provision of information materials in alternative format, in terms of its availability, access and level of use by the visually impaired in public libraries in southwestern Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design. Four (4) public libraries in four states were purposively selected because they are the ones that provide alternative format for the use of a sizable number of the visually impaired. Complete enumeration was used to capture all the 166 registered users of the libraries through the use of observations checklist and interview schedule. Data from 69.2% of the 166 visually impaired persons that were interviewed, and the observations made were analyzed. The result reveals that alternative formats availability were inadequate and, e-resources were not available while access to formats and information desired by the users were limited. Braille is the most utilized format; audio materials and large prints were seldom used. The demand for alternative formats is high but it is not related to level of use of materials. Provision of information materials in alternative formats for the visually impaired in public libraries cannot support the needs of the visually impaired; it requires intervention from all stakeholders. The study recommends improved investment and funding for public libraries and services to persons with disabilities.