“The Era of Borrowing Only Books Is Over”… Gwangmyeong City Transforms Citizens’ Lives with “Future-Oriented Libraries”

Gwangmyeong City in Gyeonggi Province is set to completely transform the paradigm of public libraries. The city has declared the evolution of libraries from static spaces for reading and borrowing books into "lifestyle-centric complex cultural spaces" where citizens can stay, communicate, and directly produce content.

On April 21, Gwangmyeong City announced that it would fully implement its "future-oriented library policy," which organically integrates reading, learning, creation, and communication into the daily lives of citizens.

The core of this policy is to expand public libraries beyond mere reading spaces, transforming them into "lifestyle-centric complex cultural spaces" where citizens can stay, relax, learn, and create.

Myeongok Kim, Director of the Lifelong Learning Project Headquarters for Gwangmyeong City, held a policy briefing on this day in the city hall's medium conference room and stated, "The key is not just to list out spaces, programs, reading culture policies, and local coexistence policies as separate initiatives, but to establish Gwangmyeong's unique and creative system that comprehensively shows how the library supports 'growth and connection' in citizens' lives."

The city is accelerating its library space improvement projects to make libraries more comfortable and to enable citizens to interact with books more naturally.

The key focus of this space innovation is to go beyond simple facility maintenance and to expand stay-type spaces within libraries, where citizens can relax, communicate, learn, and create.

Ha-an Library has utilized idle spaces to operate five "Nook Hideouts" and exhibition areas. Throughout the first to third floors, the library has introduced spaces for reading camps, art workshops, shared writing, sound rest areas, and an All-That-Game Zone, allowing everyone from children to adults to experience rest, communication, reading, and creative activities together. In the first-floor caf?-style community space, curated books selected by librarians are on display, and activities such as copying and coloring are also provided, naturally connecting books and citizens.

Gwangmyeong Library is being reborn as an "open community" for citizens, moving beyond a simple reading space. It is transforming from a static reference room into a "citizen community space" where learning, relaxation, and interaction coexist.

In particular, the city is creating a "shared space for youth" and a "digital creativity playground for teenagers" to actively support the dreams and activities of future generations, and has established a "citizen living room" and an open "lounge space" where all generations can feel at home, creating a warm and inclusive space that connects the local community as one.

Cheolsan Library has created an art-based open creative space called "Siseon," converting idle areas into citizen-participatory creative zones. Yeonseo Library, responding to increased user demand, is expanding seating and improving space functions, turning the neighborhood's common room into an "open community space" where discussion, learning, rest, and communication are all possible.

The city is also operating specialized projects that reflect each library's characteristics and the needs of the local community. Additionally, citizen growth programs are being expanded to provide opportunities for citizens to learn, experience, and broaden their life capabilities. While specialization serves as the operational direction for each library, the citizen growth programs connect that specialization to citizen learning and participation through practical implementation.

The core specialization of Ha-an Library is gaming. The game creation studio serves as a citizen digital education and experience space tailored to the digital age of artificial intelligence (AI). Through virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences and game content creation education, the library is enhancing citizens' digital literacy.

Anyone from infants to adults can visit and participate, and in cooperation with the Gwangmyeong Office of Education and the Gyeonggi Content Agency, the library also operates an all-village campus for the high school credit system, career education for youth, and e-sports tournaments.

Sohado Library operates writing as its specialized theme. It provides local writers with a stable environment for writing and offers citizens creative spaces and writing programs to develop their expressive and creative abilities. With individual writing rooms, shared writing studios, and community rooms, the library runs specialized programs such as novel writing and genre-specific writing courses, building a foundation for citizen creativity.

Chunghyeon Library specializes in children's English reading, operating the "English Reading Club" and "Renaissance Learning" to help improve children's English reading skills and material utilization abilities.

Gwangmyeong Library offers specialized services aimed at the growth of future generations. The library has established a 492-square-meter makerspace equipped with advanced 3D equipment and operates a variety of programs year-round, including startup prototype production and certification courses to strengthen citizens' digital capabilities.

Cheolsan Library, to enhance its role as a cultural platform, operates the art creation studio and the open creative space "Siseon," both based on its specialization in the arts. Citizens can practice musical instruments and produce various video content in the art creation studio's separate studios, which can then be shared on social networking services (SNS).

To foster a reading community where citizens can read, discuss, and put ideas into practice together, the city is launching the "2026 Reading One Book Together with the Citizens of Gwangmyeong" project.

This project is a citywide reading campaign that encourages citizens to read and communicate around the "Book of the Year in Gwangmyeong," which is carefully selected by the citizens themselves. It is a flagship reading culture initiative that broadens public consensus and strengthens Gwangmyeong's identity as a city of readers.

A distinctive feature of this campaign is that citizens are involved in every stage, from book selection to reading, sharing, and expanding the initiative. The city solicited book recommendations from citizens, held a selection committee review, and ultimately chose one book each for the general, youth, and children’s categories, totaling three "Books of the Year in Gwangmyeong."

The city will hold a proclamation ceremony, reading relay, book concerts, reading quizzes, and book review contests as related initiatives. The selected books will be distributed in about 600 copies to public libraries, small libraries, reading culture communities, and citizen participants in the reading relay to further spread the movement of reading together.

On April 25, the "2026 Book of the Year Proclamation Ceremony" will be held at the Sohado Library auditorium. The ceremony will include the official announcement of the Book of the Year, the handover of the book to citizen relay participants, and a reading by a citizen representative.

To support citizen creativity and vitalize local publishing culture, the city is launching the "Gwangmyeong Book Publishing Support Project."

This initiative is a citizen-participation program that not only assists citizens in planning and writing their own books but also provides experience with the entire publishing, distribution, and sales process. The goal is to expand the local creative base and build a sustainable reading and publishing ecosystem.

The main programs consist of citizen publishing courses, publishing humanities lectures, book publication support, the Gwangmyeong Art Book Fair, and achievement exhibitions.

The citizen publishing course, "A Citizen Today, An Author Tomorrow," offers hands-on practice in independent publishing planning, design, printing, and distribution for citizens with personal manuscripts, and helps actualize book publication through a citizen manuscript contest.

If the writing specialization at Sohado Library is the stage for developing citizens' creative skills, the library policy and publishing support initiatives are the next step, turning those creative outcomes into books and sharing them with the community.

Since March 1, the city has been running the "10% Book Purchase Cashback Support Project" to reduce the financial burden of book purchases for citizens and enhance the competitiveness of local bookstores.

When citizens purchase books at local bookstores using local currency, they receive a 10% cashback on the payment amount, up to a maximum of 10,000 won per person per month. Including the advantages of recharging the local currency, citizens can experience a combined discount of up to 20%.

The city views this project not just as a simple consumption support measure, but as an integrated policy linking the promotion of a reading culture with the revitalization of the local economy.

The aim is to provide citizens with more accessible opportunities to buy books without financial burden and to inject new vitality into local bookstores, thereby strengthening a virtuous cycle of local consumption.

Director Kim stated, "The library is now transforming from a space for simply reading books into a public cultural platform that supports learning, rest, creativity, and communication close to citizens' daily lives. Moving forward, we will continue to expand library policies that citizens can truly feel in their daily lives, building a city of reading culture where books, people, and the community grow together."

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