Culture ministry opens library forum in Gyeonggi as 9th committee begins outreach

The culture ministry and the National Library Committee said Wednesday they held the first of a planned series of regional library forums at the Gyeonggi Provincial Library in Suwon, bringing together about 120 officials from public, university, specialized and school libraries across Gyeonggi Province.

The meeting was the first such session organized since the ninth committee was launched in July.

Participants included representatives of the Korean Library Association, the Public Library Association, the Korean University Library Association, the Korean Special Libraries Association and the Korean School Library Association. Four speakers presented cases from different sectors: Yoon Myung-hee, director of the Gyeonggi Provincial Library, on building a regional library cooperation ecosystem; Lim Shin-ae, head of the arts information center at Seoul Institute of the Arts, on cooperation between a university library and local government institutions; Lee Eun-ju, a librarian-teacher at Bopyeong High School, on collaborative classes designed by librarian-teachers and subject teachers; and Nam Eun-kyung, a senior researcher at the Korea Railroad Research Institute, on internal communication and external cooperation at specialized libraries.

Before the forum, committee chairman Kim Ki-young met Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae to discuss library issues in the province, which is home to 328 of the country's 1,328 public libraries, or about 25 percent of the national total, according to the National Library Statistics System at the end of 2025.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Library opened in October 2025 and has taken a leading role in addressing future issues such as artificial intelligence and the climate environment, the ministry said.

The ministry and the ninth committee plan to hold a second forum in Seoul on Nov. 18 and to continue the sessions by region.

"In an era of great transition, the active participation and support of everyone in the field is essential to establish the roles that libraries and librarians must play in society," a ministry official in charge of the policy said. "The ministry will support all library workers so that they can collaborate toward the same goal and together shape the future of libraries."