KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study analyzes the participation types and strategic roles of libraries in the open access (OA) monograph ecosystem and explores implications for Korean libraries. The study examines OA monograph business models, representative international initiatives, and the Library Publishing Directory research dataset to investigate the proportion and characteristics of monographs in library publishing activities. The findings identify six OA monograph business models: BPC-based, institutional support, library consortium, print-sales-supported, premium or embargo, and membership/shared infrastructure models. Libraries were found to perform five strategic roles: financial adjusters, collective investors, knowledge infrastructure partners, publishing strategists, and value-based evaluators. The analysis also shows that monographs and open educational resources are increasing within library publishing and that libraries are expanding their role as direct publishing entities. These findings demonstrate that libraries are evolving beyond traditional collecting institutions into strategic actors shaping the funding structures and infrastructures of the OA monograph ecosystem. Korean libraries therefore need to expand their role as key actors in building a sustainable OA monograph ecosystem through collaborative funding models and value-based evaluation frameworks.

This study examines how regional context shapes variations in the benefit-cost (B/C) ratio, a key indicator used in public library construction feasibility assessments. The analysis focuses on two public library development projects in Busan, South Korea. Using user survey data, the study analyzed willingness to pay (WTP) and related factors through chi-square tests, independent-samples t-tests, and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis. The results indicate that while mean WTP differed significantly between districts, the effect size was small, suggesting that regional classification alone does not sufficiently account for variations in economic feasibility outcomes. In contrast, significant regional differences were observed in library usage behavior, perceived accessibility, service satisfaction, and perceived necessity. Several of these variables were significantly associated with WTP, although the correlations were modest. These findings demonstrate that economic feasibility indicators are sensitive to regional contextual factors and highlight the need for feasibility evaluations to incorporate broader social and contextual considerations beyond economic metrics alone.

This study analyzes the activity patterns and relational structures of translators as key agents in the reception of German literature translated into Korean using a historical bibliometric approach. Unlike previous bibliometric studies of translation history that have focused primarily on translated authors and works, this study treats translators as independent units of analysis and examines their production structures, activity characteristics, and inter-translator relationships based on the selection of translated authors. Using a bibliographic database of translated German literature, it measures the concentration of translation output by aggregating the number of translations per translator and analyzes the distribution of translated authors among core translators. It further defines relationships among translators based on the overlap of translated authors and applies network and clustering analyses to identify structural patterns. The results show that translation output is highly concentrated among a small number of translators and that core translators can be classified into distinct types according to their translation output and the diversity of translated authors. In addition, translator relationships form clusters centered on shared translated authors, indicating that the reception of German literature is structured through the concentration, differentiation, and relational organization of translator groups. This study extends the scope of bibliometrics of translation history to translators and proposes a method for quantitatively measuring translators’ activity characteristics and analyzing relationships among translators.