Yeongdeungpo-gu to Build One Village Library in Each of Its 18 Neighborhoods

Five Locations This Year, Total of 18 by 2022... Transforming into Open Cultural Spaces Where Residents Communicate and Enjoy Knowledge and Culture

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Yeongdeungpo-gu (District Mayor Chae Hyun-il) is creating one community library in each neighborhood, serving as a medium for local residents to communicate, acquire knowledge, and enjoy culture as part of a lifestyle-oriented village library initiative.

Since 2019, the district has been promoting the establishment of these lifestyle-oriented village libraries as a key project, and has created a total of eight village libraries to date.

This year, five more libraries are planned, aiming to complete a total of 18 village libraries?one in each of Yeongdeungpo’s 18 neighborhoods?by 2022.

The village libraries completed so far include ▲Dangsan 1-dong Chaeknamu Village Library ▲Yangpyeong 2-dong Small Village Library ▲Yeoui-dong Yeoui Saetgang Village Library ▲Dangsan 1-dong Bitgeul·Gonggam Village Library ▲Singil 7-dong Ma-eum Seorab Village Library ▲Singil 3-dong Saenggaknamu Village Library ▲Singil 5-dong Kkumteo Village Library ▲Singil 4-dong Deunadeuri Village Library.

The village libraries scheduled to be built this year are ▲Singil 1-dong (Bamdongsan area) ▲Daerim 1-dong (next to Jorongbak Project Team) ▲Daerim 2-dong (near Jungang Market) ▲Daerim 3-dong (next to Wonji Park) ▲Dorim-dong (4th floor of the Community Center).

The district involves local residents from the preparation stage of these village libraries and continues to employ residents as village librarians after completion, aiming for resident-led libraries.

For example, the ‘Ma-eum Seorab Village Library’ was named through a public contest among residents. Also, the ‘Bitgeul, Gonggam Village Library’ located in Dangsan 1-dong was established on the site of a caf?-style restaurant, originally known as a so-called ‘bad cafe,’ which was voluntarily closed by residents’ initiative.

Additionally, the district has absorbed existing small libraries and youth reading rooms, which were previously operated in a closed manner focused on book lending, into the village libraries to improve space operation efficiency.

The district expects the village libraries to become central spaces leading the local community in the future.

Chae Hyun-il, Mayor of Yeongdeungpo-gu, stated, “The newly built village libraries have been designed to shed the solemn and rigid image of traditional libraries and to provide spaces where people can relax and enjoy leisure in a comfortable and free atmosphere. Moving forward, we will equip them with a variety of high-quality content suited to the Fourth Industrial Revolution era and develop them into spaces leading future knowledge culture.”

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