Abstract

Many local governments in Korea have competitively shown great interests in establishing and operating public libraries and carried out various projects. With this, an increasing number of local governments have recently established and implemented medium- and long-term development plans for their public libraries, based mostly on the findings from researches committed to the outside experts. Cheongju City has formulated the First Medium- and Long-Term Development Plan for Public Libraries in Cheongju City (2012-2016) in 2011 and the Second Plan (2017-2021) in 2016. The goal of this study is to help accomplish the planned goals of the Second Plan by conducting an interim check on the current state of execution and content of the Second Plan. To reach the research goals, first, we identified the outcome and limitations of the First Plan, as previously carried out. Second, we analyzed the trend in the change of the cultural environments of public libraries in Cheongju City. Third and lastly, we reviewed the promotion strategy and operation outcome of the Second Plan. In particular, this study focused on the expansion of an organizational structure, the reinforcement of professional workforce, and the increase in budgetary support as the core elements required for developing public libraries in Cheongju City.