During the first week of our trip we had the pleasure of visiting the Seoul National University Library, which serves over 16,000 undergraduates and 9,000 graduates in one of the nation’s largest public research universities.
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Seoul National University Library Building. Photo courtesy of the Seoul National Universitywesbite.

Seoul National University Library Building. Photo courtesy of the Seoul National University website.

Tucked toward the back of a hilly campus, this six-story library is home to over 880,000 volumes of books. Like many of the other libraries we visited,?this one?was bustling with students and faculty. Even during the summer, students were busy reading newspapers in the lounge, studying diligently in the many reading rooms, and dropping off theses in the front lobby.

Along our tour we were introduced to the lounge, stacks, periodicals rooms, and several large reading rooms. Each reading room?was lined with individual study spaces, most of which were occupied. We were also allowed access into the university’s extensive archives, which are?organized into three main groups: Valuable Books Collection, Ancient Books Collection, and Archival Documents Collection. After viewing the archives, we were guided through the library offices and into a buzzing server room, where an eager IT employee tried to explain how all the complex computers and machinery keep the library up and running.

A view of the many stacks.

A view of the many stacks.

Compared to Yonsei University Library, this one looked more like a typical academic library you might find in the United States. It did not have a high-tech information commons or shiny new computers like Yonsei Samsung Library. Despite this, I found it interesting that while the Yonsei Library boasted large touch-screen monitors with digital newspapers in the Information Commons, no students were using them at the time of our tour. The Seoul National University Library, however, had no fancy multimedia common, but several students were seated reading printed newspapers in the lounge. While both academic libraries were impressive, this suggests that the most important aspect of a good library is not fancy equipment, but simple access to the materials users need.