A Study on Social Perceptions of Public Libraries Utilizing the sentiment analysis

Abstract

This study would understand the overall perception of our society about public libraries, analyzing the texts related to public libraries, utilizing the semantic connection network & sentiment analysis. For this purpose, this study collected data from the last five years with keywords, ‘Library’ and ‘Lifelong Learning Center’ from January 1, 2016 through November 30, 2020 through the blogs and cafés of major domestic portal sites. With the collected data, text mining, centrality of keywords, network structure, structural equipotentiality, and sensitivity analyses were conducted. As a result of the analysis, First, ‘reading’ and ‘book’ were identified as representative keywords that form the social perception of public libraries. Second, it turned out that there were keywords related to the use of the library and the untact service due to the recent spread of COVID-19. Third, in seeking a plan for the development of public libraries through the keywords drawn to have positive meanings, it is necessary to create continuous services that can form a new image of the library, breaking away from the existing fixed role and image of the library and increase the convenience of use. Fourth, facilities and facilities for library services were recognized from a neutral point of view. Fifth, the spread of infectious diseases, social distancing, and temporary closure and closure of libraries are negatively related to public libraries, and awareness of librarians has been identified as negative keywords.