What Caused the Usage Rate of Seongbuk District Public Library to Double During Social Distancing?

Implementation of Limited 'Safe Book Lending Service' with Disinfected Books Pre-Packed... Increasing Budget for E-Book Purchases and Shortening Order Cycles to Boost E-Library Usage

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seongbuk District Public Library is implementing COVID-19 response non-face-to-face service operations based on the service principle of prioritizing the safety of residents as the COVID-19 pandemic prolongs.

Since the temporary closure on February 7, approximately 690,000 volumes across 14 Seongbuk District Public Libraries have been individually disinfected, and step-by-step customized non-face-to-face services are being operated to alleviate the inconvenience experienced by residents in using the libraries due to COVID-19.

During the temporary closure period, Seongbuk District Public Library has been providing non-face-to-face lending services through 12 unmanned reservation lending machines in the area, and as the usage of these machines increased, the waiting time was shortened from the previous 2 days to 1 day.

This represents an increase from the previous daily average lending volume of 363 books to about double, 786 books.

In addition, the budget for purchasing e-book materials has been expanded to 20% of the total book purchase budget, and the ordering cycle, previously quarterly, has been shortened to twice a week. Audiobooks are also being purchased early, and the use of the electronic library is actively promoted through the Seongbuk District Public Library website.

Furthermore, from April 15, unmanned smart libraries at Seokgye Station and Korea University Station have been operated, allowing the lending of highly used new books and children's books.

The operating hours are from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., coinciding with the station operation hours.

Starting April 21, as a measure to minimize mutual face-to-face contact, disinfected books will be pre-packed and a limited ‘Safe Book Lending Service’ will be implemented first at 10 libraries (1 day, 1 person, 2 books). The second phase, starting May 1, will add 3 more libraries, providing up to 820 books daily for lending.

With these additional COVID-19 response safe book lending and smart library services, Seongbuk District Public Library supports lending about 2,000 books daily, which is 67% of the approximately 3,000 books lent daily before COVID-19 in 2019.

On the Seongbuk District Public Library website’s ‘COVID-19 Information Service Corner,’ information related to COVID-19 carefully selected by a TFT of 14 librarians can be found.

In particular, it is very useful as it allows users to check at a glance practical information closely related to daily life, from online school openings to content that soothes the body and mind tired from COVID-19.

Seungro Lee, Mayor of Seongbuk District, stated, “In this disaster situation where residents’ depression and stress are increasing due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, while participating in social distancing, we will expand and promote various support measures to relieve residents’ depression, including book lending services that support hobbies, toy rentals for infants and toddlers, and distribution of box gardens for the elderly.”

Detailed information about the customized non-face-to-face service operation of Seongbuk District Public Library’s COVID-19 response can be checked in real time through the Seongbuk District Public Library website (https://www.sblib.seoul.kr).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.