One in Five Small Libraries Closed or Suspended... Impact of Budget Cuts

Doubled in Six Years...
More Users, But Less Support

Last year, one out of every five small libraries nationwide closed its doors.

According to data released on October 13 by Assemblyman Min Hyungbae of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, the number of small libraries temporarily or permanently closed has been increasing every year. In 2019, 648 out of a total of 6,672 libraries (9.7%) were closed or suspended, but last year this figure more than doubled to 1,440 out of 6,830 libraries (21.1%).

By region, Daejeon was the most severely affected, with 21 out of 221 libraries (9.5%) closed or suspended. This was followed by Sejong (6.1%), Gwangju (5.9%), and Gyeonggi Province (5.4%).

The number of users has steadily increased, rising from 21.98 million in 2020 to 32.47 million last year. Ultimately, the issue was the budget. Last year, both the local government public library support budget and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's small library support program budget decreased compared to five years ago. In particular, the budget for the Ministry's "Small Library Culture Day" program, which amounted to 2 million won, was completely cut for two consecutive years.

Assemblyman Min pointed out, "This is the result of drastic cuts to budgets related to reading, bookstores, libraries, and publishing," and added, "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism needs to come up with measures to revitalize small libraries."