Abstract

This study recognizes the need for Korean university society to have to prepare for the coming of the Fourth industrial revolution era and for rapid decline in the school-age population, and presents a diagnosis of the current situation of the department of domestic library and information science. To respond to such issues, it explores the identity of the department of library and information science, and the future development direction thereof. The findings of this study reveal as of February 2020 that 36 universities offer the department of library and information science, while 18 universities abolished the department. Further, compared to 2013, 2019 saw the number of the students enrolled and full-time faculty decline by 38.5% and 13.4%, respectively. Thus, the identity and future development direction of Korea’s department of library and information science were examined by dividing the issue into 5 parts. Five proposals thus were presented: First, convergence education is required at the level of academic identity. Second, at the level of law and state, the department of library and information science, it should be guaranteed that the library and information science should be promoted and that the employment should be stabilized. Third, at the level of association, the social image of the department of library and information science should be enhanced. Fourth, at the level of universities, the support for and promotion of the department of library and information science should be boosted. Fifth, at the level of the department, student-oriented education should be bolstered and the employment rate should be enhanced.