The purpose of the study was to identify the current status of financial anagement in public libraries in Korea, and to investigate funding programs and alternatives as well as the adequacy of financial operations. In order to present a survey of fina...
The purpose of the study was to identify the current status of financial anagement in public libraries in Korea, and to investigate funding programs and alternatives as well as the adequacy of financial operations. In order to present a survey of financial status, statistical characteristics by either city or region was analysed. Public libraries in Korea, directly under the guidance of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) were included for the population of this study. The following is a summary of the problems and results identified in the financial management in public libraries in Korea.
Basically, local finance consists of local revenue and expenditure. Local revenue comes from local sources by local government and supporting sources by central government. Financial sources for public libraries also vary considerably. It is considered desirable that all public libraries are managed by public funds because they freely offer access to their collections and services to all members of the community, and public funds for library services has come through general revenue of local government collected from tax-payers in the area. It is essential that local revenues provide the major source of funding for public libraries. It was found that among the local expenditures, the total of local funds allocated to public libraries was not stable due to the lack of legal and administrative mechanisms.
The following are the recommendations for increasing the public library's funding so that it can play a crucial role in providing information services to all users of the community as a regional information center.
(1) Improvement of library policy
The operation system of a public library, currently divided into two systems of the operation such as local government and the Office of Education, should be improved to a single system so that a public library can get its financial funding from general revenue of local government.
(2) Diversity of funding acquisition
All public library library revenue comes from local sources, chiefly local assembly and local government. However, it is necessary to make institutional devices for the diversity of library funds so that a public library can get continously a certain degree of funds.