A Comparative Study on the Librarian and Users’ Perception of the Specialized Library Operation
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the status of specialized services and the overall satisfaction of the operation of the specialized services for the librarians and users of the specialized libraries, and based on the ISA method, compare the specialized theme data, specialized service place, specialized program, specialized theme area facilities and environment, and derive issues of the specialized library operation and improvement measures. Consequently, first, when developing the program, the specialized library needs to develop programs in possession of unique characteristics specific to the areas of the differentiated themes from the cultural and educational programs run by the existing libraries. Second, it is necessary to focus on the specialized theme area information services for the users, and to this end, it is necessary to improve librarians ‘professionalism. Third, it is necessary to secure the budget for the specialized services and secure space. Since the scope of the services which may be provided as per the budget intended for providing specialized services may be limited, it would be necessary to secure and operate the budget systematic to this end. Fourth, the specialized library needs to proceed with activities in connection with local residents for the purposes of facilitating specialized services.
Keywords:
Specialized Library, Public Library, Librarian, User, Perception, Importance-Performance Analysis1. Introduction
The recent keywords that the various governmental departments, such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Ministry of SMEs, include specialization, characterization and differentiation. Examining the actual movements of government agencies on specialization, it can be found that the Ministry of Education has established specialization directions, such as foster projects for start-up colleges with a specialized laboratory and characterized vocational colleges and has introduced specializations to foster human resources suitable for the directions. In addition, great efforts, such as operating specialized projects aiming at the reinforcement of the competitiveness of vocational colleges through spreading the specializations focused on the strengths of universities linked to local communities and industries, have been actively made for further growth while retaining individual values through specialization.
In line with these social changes, the library sector has been constantly seeking developmental measures to make changes and the libraries has also selected “specialization” as the means of changes.
In response to the never-ending changes of the times, the intellectual demands of users have also changed and grown according to the social environment. Libraries in ancient societies existed for simple accumulation and provision of data. In fact, libraries, until recently, have played a passive role suitable for the public nature of libraries to provide education and information. However, the expectations of users for the roles of libraries have been changing in the current era where knowledge and information overflow with the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Thus, libraries have reflected expansion of its roles in line with the expectations of the public by discovering and fostering differentiated subjects and going beyond mere collection and provision of information.
By fostering and implementing library-specific differentiated services, public libraries can be transformed into libraries respected by local residents as a local cultural infrastructure and public service and the differentiated services provided by libraries can raise the awareness of libraries amongst the local residents and gain positive responses. In addition, public libraries can identify and strengthen its values in the region by doing so (Sim, Lee, & Park, 2009).
Thus, this study sought to investigate the status of specialized services and the overall satisfaction of the operation of the specialized services for the librarians and users of the specialized libraries, compare the specialized theme data, specialized service places, specialized programs and facilities and environments for specialized theme area and derive issues of the specialized library operation and improvement measures.
2. Theoretical Background
2.1 Overview of Specialized Libraries
As external expectations of the roles of libraries change in an environment where knowledge and information overflow, many professionals and library sites have demanded continuous and differentiated expertise and services which go beyond simple provision of information. (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 2018). In this regard, the needs for specialized libraries to provide tailored services for local residents and resolve local cultural issues have come to the fore (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 2018).
Specialization is a concept which signifies that a particular object carries great importance in a specific field, and specialization and specialized libraries are described as 'different ones from other general objects, special ones, professional ones, ones carrying a large significance’ by domestic researchers (Hong, 2008). Through specialized services, Libraries promote efficient utilization of professional personnel, secure creativity in library operations and services and encourage efficient execution of operating budgets for establishing and operating libraries (Park, 2005) and it is defined as a concept of satisfying the needs of users and maximizing user satisfaction by selecting a specific theme for each library and providing differentiated services (Park, 2007; Hong, 2008; Noh et al., 2018)
In summary, this study intends to define a specialized library as a library that operates and provides differentiated library services through the utilization of professional personnel and selecting specialized thematic areas in order to meet the needs of users and maximize user satisfaction.
2.2 Literature review
Research on the operation of specialized libraries has been conducted in various aspects such as studies on the specialized service programs, spatial construction of specialized libraries, perception towards specialized libraries and operational direction of specialized libraries.
As a study on specialized service programs, Park (2007) examined the necessity of specialized service programs, which are expanded from the roles of existing public libraries and development and establishment of programs in order to stimulate reading in public libraries. After the examination, Park analyzed reading-related activities of public libraries in Korea, the status of One Book at One Library event and the reading activity programs of public libraries in America. Hoang, Kim, and Park (2008) investigated and analyzed the current status of cultural programs in domestic and overseas public libraries and five activation measures of developing and disseminating national-level reading culture programs differentiated from other institutions, linking special public libraries with other cultural and educational facilities and developing cooperative programs with them, differentiating and enhancing quality of cultural programs of libraries through developing library-specific programs for each region, developing specialized cultural programs for the underprivileged and strengthening the capacity of librarians to develop and distribute cultural contents and programs for the community were presented. Yoon (2015) argued that when public libraries carry out systematic collection and preservation of regional, historical and cultural data and conduct projects to preserve the traditions, culture and histories of the region in the effort of connecting public libraries with the development of regional culture, it can enhance the existence value of libraries and librarians as a cultural infrastructure of the region. Yoon also demonstrated that in order to emphasize the roles of public libraries which represent the regional cultural infrastructures, developing programs to enhance core competencies, opening of facilities and spaces, increasing familiarity and conducting cooperative projects in close liaison with relevant organizations in the community are necessary.
Chang, Kim, and Kim (2016) analyzed spaces primarily focusing on the cases of specialized libraries as a study on the spatial construction of specialized libraries and found that specialized libraries in Korea leave much to be desired and need to pursue further development by continuing research on specialized libraries, suggesting that further research on specialized spaces in addition to the studies on the policies and services of specialized libraries should be conducted.
For the research on the perception towards specialized libraries, Noh and Oh (2018) emphasized that further research should be conducted to discuss about the assessment of training systems for dedicated subject-matter-expert librarians for specialized services, establishment and operation of qualification systems for subject-matter-expert librarians and cooperation with organizations related to subject-matters or themes to significantly improve the quality of specialized services.
For the research on the operational direction of specialized libraries, Noh, Shin, and Kwak (2017) investigated the cases of domestic and overseas specialized libraries as well as the policies, areas and effects of specialization based on which the researchers sought to suggest the directions of future studies and found that representative regional libraries also provided services for all thematic areas but intensively collected and provided services for selected specialization themes.
Jung, Kim, and Lee (2010) sought to measure the quality of university library services by applying ISA technique and deduce improvement measures. Kwak et al. (2011) designed evaluation tools to measure the quality of the National Assembly Library and applied ISA (Importance-Satisfaction Analysis) method to establish the improvement measures. In order to do so, the structural dimensions and detailed items required for the service quality of digital libraries were designed and evaluated for each quality dimension.
Through this, they showed that the element requiring intensive control is the accuracy of search, and the elements to be continuously monitored and managed are the ease of use, fast response time and system stability.
3. Methodology
3.1 Research Question
As a result of analyzing the previous research on specialized libraries, a number of studies have been conducted on the service programs of specialized libraries, spatial construction of specialized libraries, perception towards specialized libraries and operational direction of specialized libraries but it was found that no research has been conducted on the status and level of satisfaction of the actual operation of specialized libraries. Thus, this study surveyed and analyzed the perceptions of librarians and users of specialized libraries towards the operational status and level of satisfaction and importance of the specialized library operations. The research questions raised on this basis are as follows.
- ∙ RQ1: Are there differences in the perceptions towards the level of importance and satisfaction of the specialized library operation between the groups?
- ∙ RQ2: Are there differences in the perceptions towards matters to be improved in priority to vitalize specialized libraries between the groups?
In order to solve the above research questions, previous studies related to specialized libraries and ISA were investigated and analyzed, and the perception survey questionnaire was conducted for the librarians and users of specialized libraries. The details are intensively analyzed and presented in Discussion.
3.2 Research Method
This study comparatively analyzed the perceptions of librarians and users towards the operation of specialized libraries. The survey of librarians attempted to find out the actual status of the services provided by the corresponding libraries. Having the users as the research subject, the study sought to understand the status of specialized services that users perceive while using libraries. Through this, an attempt was made to understand whether users have similar awareness of the specialized services under operation and the specialized services provided operate smoothly based on the results of the two groups’ status surveys.
In addition, surveys were conducted for librarians and users to investigate the overall satisfaction level of specialized service operations, and based on the level of importance-satisfaction, operational problems and improvement measures were derived by applying ISA measurement index. Importance Satisfaction Analysis (ISA), implemented in this paper, simultaneously represents the level of importance-satisfaction for one object and it is a technique to compare and analyze by evaluating the level of importance of necessary resources or values and assess the level of emotion after actually using the subject matters (Lee & Kim, 2014). The importance-satisfaction (ISA) analysis shows a performance grid with the level of importance on vertical axis and the level of satisfaction on horizontal axis on a two-dimensional drawing and marks coordinate points using median or mean values on the graph to interpret the meaning according to their location. The first quadrant is a <Keep Up the Good Work> area where continuing current level of efforts is not necessary as both levels of importance and satisfaction are maintained at an appropriate level. The second quadrant is a <Concentrate Here> area where an immediate attempt to make improvements is required with high level of importance and low level of satisfaction.
The third quadrant is a <Low Priority> area in where levels of importance and satisfaction are both low and only needs passive efforts to maintain the level of satisfaction. The fourth quadrant is a <Possible Overkill Area> where excessive efforts is unnecessary as the level of satisfaction is higher compared to the level of importance. The result can be illustrated as shown in Fig. 1. (Jung, Kim, & Lee, 2010; Kwak et al., 2011; Lee & Kim, 2014).
Level of Satisfaction
3.3 Research Procedure
First, quality measurements of library services using ISA / IPA techniques as well as papers and reports related to specialized libraries were comprehensively investigated and analyzed. Second, questionnaires were developed through prior research, current status survey and through research process and librarians, and users of specialized libraries were surveyed. Implemented research procedure and detailed research information for each step are as shown in Fig. 2.
Research Procedure and Details
This study intended to distribute questionnaires only to librarians and users of specialized libraries when selecting the research subjects; however, it was difficult to select specialized libraries for the survey as there is no clear definition of a specialized library and the current status of specialized libraries in each region could not be accurately understood. Thus, this study conducted a complete enumeration survey on 1,042 public libraries as of Dec. 2017 and selected the librarians and users of the libraries which responded that they operate a specialized library.
The survey was conducted offline, and for this purpose, library managers were called and asked to participate in the survey. As a result, a total of 499 questionnaires out of 1,042 questionnaires distributed to librarians were collected and 256 of them were from libraries which responded that they operate a specialized library. Similarly, a total of 1,091 questionnaires out of the 5,210 questionnaires distributed to users were collected and 450 questionnaires responded that they operate a specialized library.
This study developed survey questions to investigate the perceptions of librarians and users of specialized libraries through investigating/analyzing various research papers and reports related to specialized libraries and services. The study was conducted by classifying the questions on importance and satisfaction of specialized libraries into four areas of accessibility to specialized information, service areas for specialized themes, programs for specialized themes and facilities and environments for specialized themes. As a result of analyzing the ground of libraries selected for the specialized library support project of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, it was found that materials (collections of books), places (spaces), programs, and professional librarians were customized according to the specialized themes and operating smoothly. Thus, questions were composed centering on the analysis.
Contents of Questionnaire and Composition of Questions
Also, the questionnaire development process of this study is as follows. In order to compare the perceptions of librarians and users towards the operation of specialized libraries, the areas and detailed questions were first derived by analyzing data related to the operation of specialized libraries. Focusing on the derived question items, the opinions on the survey areas and question items of a specialist group composed of doctors and professors of Library and Information Studies who conducted research related to specialized libraries and librarians in specialized libraries were compiled and summarized. Centering on the revised/updated question items in line with the overall opinions of the specialists and through the final discussion of the researchers of this study, the research questions were finalized.
The questionnaire designed to compare the perceptions of librarians (employees) in charge of specialized services and users consists of three categories: general information on demographic characteristics, current status of specialized libraries and the level of importance and satisfaction of specialized libraries. The details and number of questions by category are as follows.
4. Results
4.1 Demographic Characteristics
As a result of analyzing demographic characteristics, it was found that librarians who participated in the survey were 82.81% women and 17.19% men, 41.80% of whom were between the age of 30 to 39 years old, showing the highest age-group ratio, followed by the age groups between 20 to 29, 40 to 49 and 50 or above. In addition, the number of years that the librarians have worked in libraries was found to be, in the order of, 5 years or less (41.80%), more than 5 years ~ less than 10 years (27.34%), more than 10 years ~ less than 15 years (16.02%), 20 years or more (11.72%), 15 years ~ less than 20 years (3.13%).
Similarly, the gender of users who responded to the survey was found to be 78.44% female and 21.56% male, showing higher participation of female in all groups. Ages of the users ranged from 29.78% of 40-49 years old, 28.67% of 30-39 years old, 22.67% of 20-29 years old and 18.89% of 50 years or older. The age groups of users who participated in the survey were found to be evenly distributed, showing an age-group ratio of 20% for each age-group and enabling comparison/analysis of the perceptions of different generations. The frequency of library use of the users was found to be, in the order of, 1~2 times a week (44.67%), 3~4 times a week (24.00%) and everyday (20.00%).
In addition, when the regional distribution of respondents was categorized into five regions, more than half of the respondents were in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do areas for both groups. In terms of region, 25.39% librarians and 26.44% users were found to be in Gyeonggi-do, showing more than 1/4 of the total distribution when compared with other cities/provinces nationwide.
Specialized Library Status by Region
4.2 Status of Specialized Services
As a result of analyzing the specialized themes provided by specialized libraries, it showed that the thematic subjects that libraries provide were in the order of humanities (30.59%), arts (17.14%), languages (14.73%) and localities (14.16%). Librarians responded in the order of humanities, localities and arts whereas users responded in the order of humanities, arts and languages, showing a difference between the two groups.
The reason why the librarians and users differently perceive the basic status can be understood as users’ insufficient recognition of the themes provided by libraries. In particular, users who responded “Not Sure” was found to be 4.67%, indicating that they know the libraries they visit provide specialized services, without recognizing the primary themes of the services provided by the libraries.
Therefore, it is necessary for specialized libraries to expand the services they provide related to the specialized themes or activate cultural, educational and life cycle programs related to the themes that can improve users’ accessibility. In addition, a variety of promotion activities, such as promotions within the library to raise the awareness of the specialized themes and local promotions for the local residents.
Specialized Theme Distribution (Multiple Response)
As a result of investigating the status of the targets of specialized services, it was observed that services targeting adults, children and adolescents were actively provided and services for infants, the elderly and multicultural families were also provided. As there found no significant perceptional difference between the librarians and users, it seemed that users recognize the specialized services provided by the library. It seemingly is a result of the fact that most of the specialized services have been provided considering various targets and age-groups instead of limiting the targets or age-groups.
Specialized Service Target (Multiple Response)
As a result of analyzing the facilities related to specialized libraries, it was found that 44.76% have a dedicated reference room for the specialized theme, showing the highest ratio, others were found to have none (18.84%), dedicated exhibition room (44.76%) and dedicated experience space (15.01%). The results of comparing the two groups revealed a difference between the groups, showing a high ratio of response of ‘do not have a dedicated reference room nor space’ among librarians whereas more than half of the users responded as ‘have a dedicated reference room’ (50.67%) and 10.22% of the users responded as ‘none.’
Specialized Service Facility (Multiple Response)
Librarians, who have the standpoint of specialized service providers, perceived that no dedicated facility closely related to the theme of specialization is under operation whereas the users, who receive the service, perceived as there is a dedicated space provided by the library. It can by analyzed that the users may recognize the themes or exclusive books placed at the corners or other spaces in the library as dedicated facility or the users may misperceive reference rooms and exhibition rooms of ordinary libraries as a specialized space.
Therefore, libraries that operate specialized libraries in the future need to increase the users’ awareness of specialized libraries by securing separate spaces for the provision of recognition, materials, services and programs of specialized libraries. In addition, in order to raise the awareness of dedicated spaces in specialized libraries, a separate program for users should be planned in such spaces or additional promotion activities for the spaces should be devised.
As a result of analyzing the types of programs related to specialized themes, cultural events were most frequently provided (48.73%), followed by lectures (42.21%), exhibitions (31.73%) and related experiences (25.64%). When comparing/analyzing librarians and users, librarians responded in the order of cultural events, lectures, exhibitions, related experiences and cooperative programs with relevant organization; similarly, users responded in the order of cultural events, lectures, exhibitions, related experiences and watching related movies.
Specialized Service Program (Multiple Response)
The analysis shows that specialized libraries generally operate, focusing on cultural events and lectures. However, because each specialized theme has its own characteristics, biasedly operating one program type is analyzed to be inappropriate. Related programs provided by libraries should be diversified and subdivided accordingly. For instance, it is desirable to provide lecture types for humanity areas, exhibition types for sociology areas, and experience types for natural / technical science and art areas. However, the types may vary depending on sub-thematic areas, and operating in combination of different types, in line with the characteristics of the theme and program, seems to be desirable.
As a result of analyzing the promotion method for services and programs related to specialization, the use of bulletin boards within libraries was found to have the highest ratio, showing 80.47% and 74.93%, respectively among the librarians and users, followed by the use of homepage which 79.30% of libraries and 74.03% users responded.
Libraries seem to heavily rely on the resources of libraries for the promotion of specialized services, leading the users to find the promotions of specialized services on the bulletin boards and homepages of libraries.
Through the analyses above, it was observed that users sometime were not even aware of the specialized themes provided by libraries nor introduced with the programs related to specialized services. This can be caused by either the lack of promotion or improper promotion. Thus, carrying out promotion activities by analyzing the needs and trends of which the users have a higher accessibility is advisable, and efforts to vitalize specialized services such as contemplating promotional measures targeting workers or clubs involved in the thematic areas provided by specialized libraries in order to enhance the accessibility of users need to be made.
Promotion Experience and Method for Specialized Service (Multiple Response)
4.3 Level of Importance and Satisfaction of Specialized Services
As a result of analyzing the level of satisfaction for the operation of specialized libraries by each group, it was found that the overall level of satisfaction for operating specialized libraries was 43.36% for ‘highly satisfied’ and ‘satisfied’ and 12.89% for ‘highly dissatisfied’ and ‘dissatisfied’ among the librarians whereas 62.33% of the users responded as ‘highly satisfied’ and ‘satisfied’ and 3.17% of the users responded as ‘highly dissatisfied’ and ‘dissatisfied’, showing a relatively high level of satisfaction for the current operation of specialized libraries in both groups.
Reason of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction for Specialized Service
The analysis on the reasons of satisfaction and dissatisfaction found the reasons for the high level of satisfaction to be affluent programs related to specialization with the highest response ratio of 36.94% for librarians and 52.54% for users. In fact, more than half of the users were satisfied with affluent programs related to specialization. 33.33% of the Librarians found the goals and visions of specialized libraries to be the second highest factor which ranked the 5th highest among the users. It can be interpreted as the librarians consider establishing detailed goals and visions for services they provide as necessary in order to draw satisfiability results when providing services. On the other hand, the users showed higher responses to what they are physically provided with, such as spaces, collections of books and facilities related to specialization.
In order to maximize the level satisfaction for specialized services, libraries should consider providing practical services such as securing collections of books and spaces for users after clearly establishing solid goals and visions for providing specialized services.
The level of importance and satisfaction of the operation of specialized libraries was broadly divided into four areas of accessibility to specialized information, service areas for specialized themes, programs for specialized themes and facilities and environments for specialized themes for investigation/analysis.
ISA analysis per group revealed that both groups showed a lower level of satisfaction compared to the level of importance in all of the four areas. Below describe the details about the findings.
First, the accessibility to specialized information provided by libraries was analyzed. Both groups of librarians and users showed a high level of importance and satisfaction in the order of ‘provide information service for specialized thematic areas’ and ‘provide information for specialized thematic areas on the library homepage.’ In general, both groups showed a lower level of satisfaction compared to the level of importance for the accessibility to specialized information.
As a result of comparing the importance-satisfaction ISA analyses of the librarians and users in the area of accessibility to specialized information, providing information service for specialized thematic areas was found to be <Low Priority> among the librarians and <Concentrate Here> among the users. It seems that the group of librarians reckon that providing information services for specialized thematic areas has no effects on the improvement of current operational situation. On the other hand, the user group recognizes receiving information services for specialized thematic areas as an important item which is in need of concentrated efforts but not yet been actively provided.
Second, as a result of analyzing the service areas for specialized themes, both groups of librarians and users were found to have a high level of importance-satisfaction for the places where information on specialized thematic areas are provided and provision of places as service areas for specialized themes. Therefore, current level for the overall information and services for thematic areas should be maintained and supplementing/strengthening measures to keep the high level of satisfaction for a long-term should be prepared.
In addition, providing spaces to groups and clubs involved in the specialized thematic areas or to individuals for activities related to specialized thematic areas were observed to have no significant effects. However, in order to increase the level of satisfaction in the future, a long-term improvement plan needs to be developed.
Third, the results of analyzing programs for specialized themes revealed that both groups showed the highest level of importance from the four areas with 3.87 and 3.93, respectively for the librarians and users. The level importance of the sub-items was observed to be in the order of qualitative fidelity and sustainability of specialized thematic area programs, sufficient data and operator’s expertise, same for both groups. In particular, users were found to recognize them relatively important, showing four points or higher in qualitative fidelity, sustainability and sufficient data of specialized thematic area programs. On the other hand, for items for the level of satisfaction, librarians responded in the order of sustainability of specialized thematic area programs, qualitative fidelity of the programs and differentiation from other programs whereas the users responded in the order of sustainability of specialized thematic area programs, qualitative fidelity of the programs and expertise of the operators.
The importance-satisfaction ISA analysis of the librarian and user groups revealed a number of items that were characteristically more comparable than items in other areas.
Importance-Satisfaction Analysis by Group
Forth, as a result of analyzing the facilities and environments for specialized themes, the librarians and users both indicated their highest importance in the types of books related to the specialized themes and securing new publications. The importance-satisfaction ISA analysis of the librarian and user groups showed a difference between the two groups for the expertise of employees for the specialized thematic areas. Librarians recognize the expertise as an important value when providing services for specialized themes but consider the expertise provided as relatively dissatisfactory. On the other hand, users perceive the expertise of employees as important as well as satisfactory. In order to improve relevant items, the specialty of specialized theme services should be strengthened through recruitment of new professional personnel and education of current manpower.
Through the ISA method, the level of importance-satisfaction for twenty-two items based on the overall average were analyzed by classifying them into four categories of Concentrate Here, Keep Up the Good Work, Possible Overkill and Low Priority, resulting in derivation of items showing similarities and differences between the groups.
First of all, common characteristics found by ISA analysis are as follows. First, as the two items of provision of spaces for the services of specialized themes and places for provision of information on specialized themes of the area of service areas for specialized themes and the area of programs for specialized themes showed a high level of importance as well as a high level of satisfaction, works other than maintaining the current level is not necessary. However, measures to supplement and enhance a total of eight <Keep Up the Good Work> items, including three items of sufficiency of information, qualitative fidelity and sustainability related to programs for specialized themes and three items of types of books and securing new publications, convenience in arranged facilities and convenience of checkout of books in the area of facilities and environments for specialized themes are necessary to maintain the competitiveness and level of satisfaction for a long-term.
Importance-Satisfaction Identical Analysis Results between Librarians and Users
Second, the three items of expanded library hours for specialized themes, sufficiency of internet and computer and convenience of using computers/printers in the area of facilities and environments for specialized themes were identified as <Possible Overkill>, showing a high level of satisfaction compared to the level of importance. Thus, it is necessary to refrain from adding additional physical and human resources and maintain the current state.
Third, because the three sub-items of the area of accessibility to specialized information and the items of provision of spaces to groups and clubs involved in specialized thematic areas and provision of spaces to individuals for activities related to specialized themes of the field of service areas for specialized themes were found to have low importance and satisfaction, they have no significant effects on the improvement of the current status of specialized libraries, but they are in need of a long-term improvement in order to increase the level of satisfaction.
Similarly, the items that the librarians and users differently perceived the level of importance-satisfaction are as follows. First, the item of provision of information services for specialized themes in the accessibility to specialized information area was found to be <Low Priority>, carrying a low level of importance and satisfaction, indicative of no significant effects on the improvement of specialized libraries and the need of a long-term improvement to increase the level of satisfaction. On the other hand, the users identified the item as <Concentrate Here>, signifying the needs to be improved in priority with a low level of satisfaction and a high level of importance.
Importance-Satisfaction Different Analysis Results between Librarians and Users
Second, the item of diversity of specialized theme programs in the area of programs for specialized themes was identified as <Keep Up the Good Work> by the librarians, indicative of a high level of importance as well as a high level of satisfaction. Thus, maintaining the current level, itself, can be satisfactory but measures to supplement and enhance are also needed to keep the competitiveness and level of satisfaction for a long-term. However, it was found as <Low Priority> by the users, carrying a low level of importance and satisfaction, indicative of no significant effects on the improvement of specialized libraries and the need of a long-term improvement to increase the level of satisfaction. In addition, the item of operator’s expertise in the area of programs for specialized themes was identified as <Keep Up the Good Work> by the users whereas the item of differentiation of specialized theme programs from other existing programs was identified as <Keep Up the Good Work> by the librarians. For the item of originality of programs for specialized themes was found to be <Concentrate Here> and <Low Priority>, respectively by the librarians and users.
Third, for the item of expertise of employees in the specialized themes in the area of facilities and environments for specialized themes was found as <Concentrate Here> by the librarians, indicating the need to be improved in priority whereas the users identified the item as <Keep Up the Good Work> which has no impact on the improvement of current operation of specialized libraries but in need of a long-term improvement to increase the level of satisfaction.
As a result of analyzing the areas to be promoted for the vitalization of specialized libraries, the development of specialized library programs was found to be the most important area with the highest scores of 4.11 among the librarians and 4.01 among the users. Among the librarians, the average value for items of developing programs for specialized libraries, expanding operational budget for specialized services, securing spaces for the provision of specialized services and connecting with local residents was 4.00 or higher. In general, those items showing a high average value among the librarians were found to have a high value of 3.90 or higher among the users as well.
Therefore, most urgent actions to be taken for the vitalization of specialized libraries are as follows. First, it is deemed necessary to develop/operate programs appropriate for the themes of each specialized library. Previously in this paper, providing programs in line with the theme, i.e. offering lecture types for humanity areas, exhibition types for sociology areas, and experience types for natural / technical science and art areas and operating in combination of different types, in line with the characteristics of the theme and program as types may vary depending on sub-thematic areas were suggested. Likewise, developing type-specific programs based on the theme or creating programs considering the targets of the programs in line with the theme is also necessary.
Overall Average Results of ISA Analysis of Librarians and Users
Second, securing budgets and spaces for specialized services is imperative. Since the range of services that can be provided may be limited by the budget set for the provision of specialized services, it is necessary to systematically secure and operate the budget. In addition, in the case of securing spaces for the provision of specialized services, the high need for such spaces seems to reflect those libraries without spaces for specialized services, operating a separate section related to specialized themes within a reference room designated for other purposes and providing services through the placement of exclusive books.
Third, for the vitalization of specialized services, specialized libraries should carry out activities to connect with the local residents. It is also necessary for libraries to provide specialized services through direct linkages with the local residents or to maintain participation in the linkage activities through cooperation with public and private institutions of the region.
Requirements for the Vitalization of Specialized Libraries
5. Discussion
This study investigated the status of specialized services and overall satisfaction for the operation of the specialized services among the librarians and users of specialized libraries and scrutinized the importance-satisfaction of the librarians and users for the information, spaces, programs, facilities and environments of specialized services by applying ISA technique. Based on the findings, this study attempted to derive improvement measures, in consideration of the needs of the supply and demand groups for operating specialized libraries by examining the status and issues of specialized services operated by the libraries.
The first research question examined whether there is a perceptional difference in the level of importance and satisfaction for the operation of specialized libraries between the groups. Compared to the overall average, a perceptional difference was found between the two groups in the provision of information service in the area of accessibility to specialized information. Similarly, a perceptional difference between the librarians and users was found in the diversity of programs related to specialized themes, expertise of the operators of specialized theme programs, differentiation from other existing programs for specialized themes, sufficiency of information for specialized theme programs and originality of specialized theme programs in the area of programs for specialized themes and the expertise of employees in the specialized themes in the area of facilities and environments of specialized themes also showed a perceptional difference between the groups.
Even though a low level of satisfaction was found in the two groups for information service for the thematic areas, users were observed to recognize the service relatively more important, compared to the librarians. Librarians were found to consider diversity, differentiation and originality of programs important whereas the users showed a lower level of importance-satisfaction for those items. The results revealed that the libraries recognize the needs of providing differentiated and unique specialized services when providing reading/culture programs for specialized themes more than the users do. Moreover, both groups seemed to recognize the expertise of employees as an important factor, nonetheless, the librarians perceived a need of qualitative improvement comparable to the level of importance whereas the users perceived the expertise of current employees as satisfactory.
The second research question compared the perceptional differences in the matters to be improved in priority to vitalize specialized libraries between the groups. In order to do so, the requirements for the activation of specialized libraries that librarians and users consider were identified and both the librarians and users perceived the development of programs as a prerequisite for the vitalization of specialized libraries.
Previously, the prior research analyses of Park (2007), Hoang, Kim, and Park (2008) presented that developing and disseminating national-level reading culture programs, linking special public libraries with other cultural and educational facilities and developing cooperative programs with them, differentiating and enhancing quality of cultural programs of libraries through developing library-specific programs for each region, developing specialized cultural programs for the underprivileged and strengthening the capacity of librarians to develop and distribute cultural contents and programs for the community as some of the requirements of the activation of specialized libraries.
As a result of examining the perceptions of librarians and users towards libraries providing specialized services based on the research question, quantitatively and qualitatively differentiated programs must be provided for the activation of specialized libraries. To this end, librarians, as a provider, need to enhance their expertise. In other words, recruiting subject-matter-expert librarians, training/educating librarians to enhance the professionalism and continuous development of programs for specialized themes are important to ensure specialized libraries to continue and expand the operations of specialized services.
6. Conclusion
With the expansion of knowledge information and diversified access paths such as mobile and the Internet, libraries need to transform its responsibilities and roles by providing continuous and differentiated expert knowledge. In order to do so, libraries should constantly repeat in-depth investigation of the categories the user’s desire and even special themes/topics that are more desirable, rather than simply making a delivery. This study investigated the perceptions of the groups for the further growth of specialized services of libraries, and in order to provide improved services, first, specialized libraries need to develop programs having characteristics unique to the theme of specialization which is differentiated from cultural/educational programs provided by any other libraries. The type of program must be suitable for the thematic area for the uniqueness of specialization theme/topic and the selection of type, such as experience type, lecture type and exhibition type, must be made based on the analysis of users’ demand. Second, information service for specialized thematic areas must be provided in priority for the users and it requires the enhancement of employees’ professionalism. Today, public libraries providing specialized services seldom have professional personnel or dedicated librarians with expertise for the corresponding thematic areas. In order to facilitate the thematic services in specialized libraries, at least one expert in the corresponding thematic area should be recruited as a dedicate personnel for the specialization. Third, securing budgets and spaces are required for specialized services. Since the range of services that can be provided may be limited by the budget set for the provision of specialized services, it is necessary to systematically secure and operate the budget. In addition, linkage activities with the local residents must be carried out by specialized libraries for the vitalization of specialized services.
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Younghee Noh has an MA and PhD In Library and Information Science from Yonsei University, Seoul. She has published more than 50 books, including 3 books awarded as Outstanding Academic Books by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Government) and more than 120 papers, including one selected as a Featured Article by the Informed Librarian Online in February 2012. She was listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in the World in 2012-2016 and Who’s Who in Science and Engineering in 2016-2017. She received research excellence awards from both Konkuk University (2009) and Konkuk University Alumni (2013) as well as recognition by “the award for Teaching Excellence” from Konkuk University in 2014. She received research excellence awards form ‘Korean Y. Noh & Y. Shin International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology Vol.9, No.3, 75-101 (September 2019) 101 Library and Information Science Society’ in 2014. One of the books she published in 2014, was selected as ‘Outstanding Academic Books’ by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2015. She received the Awards for Professional Excellence as Asia Library Leaders from Satija Research Foundation in Library and Information Science (India) in 2014. She has been a Chief Editor of World Research Journal of Library and Information Science in Mar 2013 ~ Feb 2016. Since 2004, she has been a Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science at Konkuk University, where she teaches courses in Metadata, Digital Libraries, Processing of Internet Information Resources, and Digital Contents.
Woojung Kwak is the researcher of the Institute of Knowledge Content Development & Technology. She has published 1 books, and 13 articles, and has participated in 14 projects relevant to the library and information science. Also, she is now the Ph.D. candidate at the department of Library & Information Science, Konkuk University in Korea. Her works focus specifically on curation, digital curation, specialized library, and Humanities and Social Assets. Email: woojung2243@gmail.com
Youngji Shin is the researcher of the Institute of Knowledge Content Development & Technology. She has published 2 books, and 14 articles, and has participated in 14 projects relevant to the library and information science. Also, she is now the Ph.D. candidate at the department of Library & Information Science, Konkuk University in Korea. Her works focus specifically on hospital library, medical library, health information. Email: gee910125@gmail.com