The government plans to build 219 libraries across the nation this year.                  

The Presidential Committee on Library and Information Policy and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) on Jan. 10 announced the 2012 imple-mentation plan, part of the nation's comprehensive library development scheme for 2009-2013. 

The committee finalized the 2012 implementation after examining draft plans submitted by 30 central government agencies and 16 city and provincial governments.

It set the budget for libraries, including state budgets and private sector investments, at 433.4 billion won. The bulk of the total budget will be spent for improving access to libraries and services. About 111.9 billion goes to the Gyeonggi Provincial Government, accounting for 24.6 percent, the biggest share of the allocation for city and provincial governments. Seoul came in second with 71.3 billion won, or 15.6 percent, followed by Gyeongsangnam-do with 40.9 billion won, Incheon with 36.3 billion won, and Jeollabuk-do with 27.7 billion.

By government agency, the MCST took the biggest share with 74.9 billion won, followed by the Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency with 28.3 billion own, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology with 26 billion won, and the Ministry of National Defense with 7.4 billion won. 

An additional 61 public libraries will be built across the nation this year along with 158 new smaller libraries, thus reducing the population served per library from 65,000 in 2011 to 61,000 in 2012. Steps to offer better access to libraries will be implemented in earnest. 

The budget to purchase about 5.5 million books for public libraries was set at 55.6 billion won in 2012, thus improving the number of library books per head from 1.5 in 2011 to l.6 in 2012.

Starting this year, school libraries will be allowed to set aside 3 percent of its operating costs to purchase scholastic materials in a bid to cultivate libraries into a space for teaching and studying with the goal of raising the number of books per student from 18.6 in 2011 to 20 in 2012. 

About 6.9 billion won will be allotted for expanding military barracks' libraries to promote soldiers' self-development, while an additional 1.7 billion won will be spent to operate them and promote reading.

The government will invest 7.6 billion won to promote university libraries' services by securing university licenses on 22 kinds of overseas academic databases so that all universities and colleges across the nation can access them. 

The number of librarians at public libraries will also be increased from 3,387 in 2011 to 3,553 in 2012.  nw