For our final library tour we visited the Mapo Lifelong Learning Center in Seoul. This is an educational community center that is open to the public and provides various classes, study rooms, cafeterias, and exercise facilities ? much like a YMCA. During the week, this center is filled with people of all ages taking advantage of the many activities available. On our tour we saw two painting classes, a computer literacy class, reading rooms packed with people studying, and a beginner?s ballet class with some enthusiastic youngsters. A swimming pool was under construction, but when that is complete it will be open to users as well.
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Outside the Mapo Center
While the center is more of an all-encompassing educational facility than a traditional library, it still contains conventional library rooms for adults and children where patrons are free to browse the stacks and take out books. Like all the other libraries we visited, the Mapo Lifelong Learning Center?is vibrant and full of people.
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These library visits, in addition to the academic libraries class at Yonsei University, presented us with a glimpse into Korean library culture and an understanding of the country?s focus on quality educational services. Though we only scratched the surface in our brief two weeks, I have gained a greater perspective on the history of Korean librarianship and the similarities and differences and between the two cultures.