본문 바로가기
  • Home

An Analysis on Relations Between the Services of Public Libraries for Babies and Toddlers and Bookstart Program

  • Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
  • 2010, 44(4), pp.333-352
  • DOI : 10.4275/KSLIS.2010.44.4.333
  • Publisher : 한국문헌정보학회
  • Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Library and Information Science
  • Received : October 18, 2010
  • Accepted : November 8, 2010

Sooyeon Kim 1

1대원대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study analyzed the services of libraries for babies and toddlers and the possibilities of service expansion through Bookstart program as a cooperative system for libraries. This study shows how users change their way of using libraries and their perceptions of the services of libraries for toddlers by implementing the questionnaire method and the analysis of library statistics. Results show that most of library users (98.8%) expressed the need for Bookstart program. Respondes also said that libraries, rather than other institutions, should be the place where the program is to be implemented. By analyzing the perceptions of library users, we also find that they think that the age of the first use of a library is more appropriate for toddlers than kindergarten-ages. We also found that library users who participated in a Bookstart program had a positive change in the way they used libraries. After participating in Bookstart programs, many changes occurred with respect to the perception of babies, reading habits of parents, and users’ perception of libraries. After introducing Bookstart program, one city library’s membership enrollment rates of babies and toddlers increased from 7.1% to 26.2%. But the rate for another city that did not participate in the program was shown at 4.3%. This study suggests that the introduction of Bookstart program would bring changes and expansions to the functions of libraries and the sometimes inflexible attitudes of library users. The study examined Bookstart program as a cooperative system for libraries by changing the perception of library users and activating the services of libraries for babies and toddlers.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.