Korean academic libraries.

  Today, I interviewed with an academic librarian in Korea. He is working for Sungkyunkwan University, which I graduated from. To be honest, (not intend to show off) Sungkyunkwan University is one of top ranking universities and quite famous for Library and Information Science. Even though it is, he takes a negative look on roles of library and librarians in Korea.
  Details about what he said will be uploaded to Interview assignment section. But there are few things I just want to mention.

This is how the library looks :

http://lib.skku.edu/en/index.ax

 The university renovated library building recently. (Actually, not only this university but also other famous universities in Korea also renovated their library building dramatically like a kind of trend - it may, because they wanted to look like "Digital Library with the cutting edge of tech". )


 But, they only focused on physical improvement such as more computers, fancy buildings, spacious and comfort reading room and digital newspaper booth. When it comes to resources including human resources, it was hardly changed - and administrative system also relatively unchanged.

 I felt really bad about it, I understand every employee may not be satisfied entirely by their job. But, his concerns about his roles was really, seriously, too severe. Korea students have been educated by cramming method of teaching for a long time. Even though it is getting a little better, many high school students study in excessive competition in entrance examinations for a better university and many university students study just for getting a job in conglomerate or public enterprise. They almost have not done their own research, they may not be familiar with self active studying so a library descend to a place for not searching information but their private reading or studying.

  If you read my interview, you could know how badly he think about the current situation in Korean library.
I will upload my work soon, because due date coming!! :) but I have to translate the contents so it'll take a few days, ha ha ha