The objective of this study is to suggest a future direction for cultural programs in public libraries by literature review and the investigation of the programs in practice in Seoul Metropolitan City from various perspectives. The programs were categorized by their characteristics, such as subject, users, and managerial aspects based on the literature review. Then we investigated their rates to total number of programs in order to identify trends in years. There were two interesting points as follows: experience-centered and health education programs have been increasing in terms of the subject, and participation-oriented programs in terms of managerial aspects has also been increasing. The results led us to suggest strengthening the programs in those categories for future planning on public libraries' cultural programs.