Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the library related campaign promises of the candidates for the heads of metropolitan governments and the superintendents of education between 1st and 6th nationwide local election in Korea. To do this, the library related campaign promises of 346 candidates were analyzed by analysing the official gazettes for elections digitally archived in National Election Commission of Korea. As a result, the campaign promises of the candidates were insufficient both in quality and quantity. The candidates for the heads of metropolitan governments showed low ratio of the library related campaign promises, excessive concentration on construction or installation of libraries and higher preference for small libraries than public libraries. The candidates for the superintendents of education showed relatively balanced distribution of the election promises on library fields. But the campaign promises related public libraries were insufficient and the campaign promises of school libraries did not reflect the major elements of school libraries and the context of school libraries in Korea.