Abstract

This study aims to compare the awareness of the social value of public libraries between users and non-users to materialize the abstract concept of social value and, thereby, to present measures that can be applied to the library field. For this purpose, a survey was conducted in person or online for 15 days from May 7, 2023, targeting Paju citizens. Frequency analysis, factor analysis, independent samples t-test, and one-way analysis of variance were conducted on 206 valid response copies using SPSS 25.0. In the results, it is shown that, first, for awareness of the social value of public libraries according to socio-demographic characteristics, there were significant differences depending on age, with in particular, awareness among those in their 10s and 40s being higher than other age groups. For awareness of community development, the awareness of the female group was higher than that of the male group, while, for the awareness according to occupation, it is shown that awareness was highest in the following order: student, others, housewife, self-employed, and office worker. Second, for the awareness of the social value of public libraries, the awareness of the user group was higher than that of the non-user group in all areas. Third, for awareness of the social value of public libraries according to the level of library use, there was no significant difference between groups. In conclusion, it is suggested that measures to encourage non-users to become users, develop new content and services targeting male group and those in their 60s, and 20s, and strengthen community activities are needed to raise awareness of the social value of Paju City public libraries in the future.