Seoul National University Library Kwanjeong (Image courtesy of Wikimedia)
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – While reading rates continue to decline, an increasing number of books are accumulating in public libraries, exacerbating the imbalanced supply and demand dynamics within the reading market.
Remarkably, all 10 major national universities, including Seoul National University, are grappling with overburdened libraries. An analysis conducted using the Academic Information Statistics System (Rinfo) on the libraries of these universities revealed the severity of the issue.
As of last year, Kyungpook National University had an initial collection of 1.68 million books but possessed a staggering 3.42 million books, resulting in a saturation rate of 203 percent.
Following Kyungpook National University, Jeju National University (189 percent), Pusan National University (173 percent), and Seoul National University (160 percent) reported the highest saturation ratios. On the contrary, Chonbuk National University had the lowest saturation ratio at 113 percent.
Libraries should undertake prudent measures to free up space for new collections. Nonetheless, it’s astonishing that despite these ten universities having disposed of more than 1.1 million books over the past three years, the number of books in their collections has increased by 494,297.
University libraries differ from public libraries with more lenient collection policies. They are obligated to adhere to stricter standards for book disposal, and these 10 universities exhibit variations in their book management procedures.
These differences encompass disposal methods, the operation of disposal committees, and the number of staff responsible for disposal. Notably, six universities, including Seoul National University, had no budget allocated for disposal.
Additionally, nine university libraries, except for Seoul National University, have established committees to deliberate on book disposal, while Seoul National University disposes of books through the approval of the library director without the involvement of a committee.
On another front, the 2021 National Reading Survey released by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism disclosed that only 47.5 percent of adults aged 19 and older read at least one book (excluding textbooks and reference books) during the year spanning from September 2020 to August 2021.
This annual comprehensive reading rate falls below half the population, indicating that more than half of all adults did not read any books during the year.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
