2013, Vol.47, No.2

Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.84

pISSN : 1225-598X / eISSN : 2982-6292
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kslis

Many students with disabilities at the university face difficulties in educational inequity, cultural isolation, information illiteracy, and discrimination in the broad range of campus activities. The biggest barrier is the lack or difficulty of access to knowledge and information needed for learning. Libraries, therefore, must not discriminate against students with disabilities and should ensure equal access to and use of information resources and services. This paper analyzed the satisfaction and requirements on facility and space services, direct and indirect services, total library service of students with disabilities based on the results of the survey and interview. This paper suggested ways to improve service satisfaction of students with disabilities in a university library.

South Korea has fewer public libraries than other developed nations of OECD. This calls for a more diverse role of school libraries in the geographically isolated areas. School libraries should provides services for not only its students and faculty, but also the surrounding neighborhood as a part of cultural community. Based on the needs for an expanded role of school libraries, this research aims to identify the necessary factors for school libraries to provide services to their local residents. Two things should be identified for this research. First, we should confirm the necessity of policies that provide library services to local residents of school libraries. Second, we should propose a way to have the libraries as a part of cultural community where meet the information and cultural demand of their local residents. The study surveyed users, school principals and working-level staff members of cultural communities in order to study the two questions. These groups were from Uri-school Village Library, which is supported by the NHN Culture Foundation. Through the survey, the research confirmed the need for a consistent outside assistance, job training, open door policy for local residents and diverse library services in order for school libraries to serve their local community.

This study purported to evaluate the usefulness and feasibility of “Guidelines for contracting-out of public library services (2011).” The Guidelines have been developed by the Culture and Library Forum to provide principles and standards for local governments considering the contracting-out of public library services in their district. The research data were collected by conducting in-depth interviews with 17 local government officers who are responsible for the contracting-out of public library operations and two focus group interviews with eight directors of public libraries contracted out. It was found that the interview participants in both government and library sides generally perceived the Guidelines useful, yet their perceptions of feasibility in outsourcing were largely pessimistic due to local politics and many other hindrances in society. The study suggested specific directions to further improve the Guidelines’ usefulness and feasibility.