교회의 작은도서관 운영 활성화 방안에 관한 연구

Abstract

In order to explore the exact current status and features of small church libraries and suggest implications on how to facilitate their operations, this study has analyzed general conditions of their current operations. Firstly, all aspects of facilities, books, and people of small church libraries, the three elements of libraries, have turned out to be under poor conditions compared to small regular libraries. Secondly, out of all factors that encourage the use of church libraries, the number of retained books in libraries appears to be most influential. Thirdly, it is shown in the results of an analysis on each category group that most church libraries are under poor conditions and only few of them are excellent in terms of the current status of their sizes, labor forces, and users. Based upon these findings, this study suggests implications on facilitating church library operations as follows. First of all, it is highly crucial to have full-time workers and professional staffs who can set aims or purposes of church libraries and be in charge of stable management of budget and library operations. Secondly, it is also important to develop programs suitable for each library’s features and knowledge contents to improve the quality of reading experience. Thirdly, through utilizing library cooperative networks, interlibrary loan or librarian rotation systems should be available. Also, through proactive marketing activities, libraries should be promoted to local communities or church members. Lastly, the most significant part for facilitating church library operations is passions of pastors and chief operators in charge. They need to be willing to contribute to their local communities with their dedications and commitments.