Gwangju City to Add 6 More Public Libraries by 2024

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 24th that it plans to increase the number of public libraries by 6 by 2024.

Currently, there are 27 public libraries in the Gwangju area, and the city plans to increase the number to 33, reducing the population served per library from the current 54,000 to 44,000.

Gwangju City intends to continuously work to reduce cultural disparities and information polarization between regions by expanding public libraries, which serve as local educational and cultural infrastructure.

As of the end of July 2022, 27 public libraries are in operation, distributed as follows: 4 in Dong-gu, 5 in Seo-gu, 5 in Nam-gu, 7 in Buk-gu, and 6 in Gwangsan-gu. Additionally, 421 small libraries are in operation.

The public libraries to be established by 2024 include the Gwangju Representative Library on the site of the Sammu District incineration plant, Hanam Municipal Library in Hanam District of Gwangsan-gu, and a Braille library (opened in November 2022) to enhance reading convenience for the visually impaired, totaling 3 municipal libraries, along with 3 district libraries under development in Dong-gu, Seo-gu, and Nam-gu.

The district libraries are linked to the government’s ‘Top 10 Local Community-Oriented Social Overhead Capital (SOC) Projects’ and aim to open next year to create libraries that are highly accessible and closely integrated with citizens’ daily lives.

In addition, 7 small libraries (1 in Dong-gu, 2 in Seo-gu, 1 in Buk-gu, and 3 in Gwangsan-gu) are also being established.

Meanwhile, according to a recent report titled ‘Quality of Life Disparities Between Regions: Culture, Health, and Childcare’ published by the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, the region with the highest library accessibility is Seoul (14 minutes on foot), followed by Busan (32 minutes on foot), with Gwangju ranking third (33 minutes on foot). It is expected that as Gwangju expands its libraries to 33, citizens’ accessibility to libraries will significantly improve.

Kim Yoseong, Director of the City’s Culture and Sports Office, said, “We will continue to expand public libraries to enhance citizens’ access to information and do our best to bring libraries closer to the lives of our citizens.”

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