Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the current status of university library operation through the five laws of library science and suggest ways to improve it. To this end, the operation status of four national and public university libraries was analyzed with the scope of the study as the Busan area. Furthermore, for an in-depth investigation, the P University library in Busan was examined as a case. The operation status of national and public university libraries in the Busan region was analyzed by dividing them into the categories of university library collection materials, facilities, staff, material purchase costs, and users from 2018 to 2022. In particular, there was a decrease in users and a shortage of librarians due to COVID-19. In the case study, the operation status of P University library was investigated focusing on the first and fifth laws of Ranganathan’s five laws of library science. In the first law, the study was conducted on the aspects of access to and use of the collection, library location, usage time and book lending, and staff. In the fifth law, the investigation was divided into service improvement aspects according to changes in digital technology of P University library and library environment improvement aspects according to changes in user characteristics. As a result of the study, ‘establishment of library space composition strategy’, ‘establishment of blue ocean strategy’, and ‘expansion of recruitment and deployment of librarians’ were suggested as improvement plans.