2014-15 Country Report
National Library for Children and Young Adults
Republic of South Korea
Updated: August 2015
- National Library for Children and Young Adults, South Korea
The National Library for Children and Young Adults was opened in 2006 to support the library services for children and young adults in nationwide libraries. As the unique national institution, the NLCY conveys a vision of ‘Library that opens the future of children and young adults’.
The total budget is 4 billion KRW and 44 staffs are working. 544,966 volumes/titles are possessed by the Library and 79,000 visitors come to the Library and 7,500 people come for library visit each year.
- Reading Promotion Projects
The NLCY has operated the ‘Reading Together with the Library’ and ‘Book Bundle Circulation’ which targets the children in cultural alienation class and has provided various supports for the libraries nationwide to operate the summer and winter reading classes. Moreover, the contents of the ‘Interactive Storytelling Program’ and picture books translated into multicultural languages were developed and distributed by the NLCY.
In order to support school library services, ‘Library Adventure by Bookworms Ages 13-18’ and ‘Library Treasure Box’ were held as the major reading culture programs designed for young adults. In the Library, the ‘Yellow Apron Service’ has been newly initiated which is a volunteering service involved with young adults – the participating young adults would wear the yellow apron and read books to younger children.
- Strengthening Research Support
Every year, the NLCY selects and translates several outstanding foreign materials and distributes the translations to the public libraries. Starting from 2007, the ‘International Symposium on Library Service for Children and Young Adults’ were held annually to strengthen the competence of children’s librarians; and 7 workshop courses were carried out as of 2014 while cyber contents were developed throughout the years to increase the professionalism of children’s librarians. The NLCY’s annual reports, the monthly periodical ‘Library Story’, and the webzine service ‘e-partner for Research on children and Young Adults’ are being released as the NLCY’s periodical publications.
- Cooperation with Related Organizations
In January 2014, MOU with the Russian State Library for Young adults was concluded and the material exchange and the staff exchange program were conducted in the same year. In August 2004, MOU with the National Library Board of Singapore was concluded and the staff exchange program was held in 2015.
20 children’s librarians from 10 ASEAN countries (2 librarians from each country) and 2 monitoring staffs from the ASEAN Secretariat Office were invited to participate in the ‘ASEAN Training Project for Children’s Librarians’.