• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.183-211
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• 2023

As a private school and a library in the Enlightenment Period of Korea, Woo-Hyun Seoru(友弦書樓) was established between 1904 - March 1905 by Lee, Dong Jin who had a will and provided a economic support for it and his son Lee, Il Woo had founded and operated it and it seemed to be closed in 1911. By this time, Woo-Hyun Seoru has been underestimated or ignored in the history of libraries in Korea. This study tried to investigate 8 aspects of Woo-Hyun Seoru as a modern library including the subject and purpose of establishment, the date of establishment, the location and buildings, the collection development and the acquisition methods, the user group and the important users, the library activities, the process of closure, and the moving path of the collections after the closure of Woo-Hyun Seoru. To do this, the articles of newspaper, periodicals, and academic journals, the relating documents and Sung Nam Se Go(城南世稿) written by Dong Jin Lee, Il Woo Lee and their descendants and colleagues were analyzed.