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Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies

Part2:Country studies

South Korea

What is driving change?

In Korea, there is still no national library for the blind.

A national support centre for the disabled will be established withi the national library in 2007. After that, it is expected that a national specialist library for visually impaired people will be built.

The government is now promoting a mid-to-long term development plan to secure the existence of public libraries. It aims to double the number of public libraries serving visually impaired people (the current number is 34). The introduction of this combination of Braille and public libraries will lead to an expansion of a public library’s services to the sight-disabled. [Keun Hae Youk: Public library as an agent ..., 2005.]

The Korean Braille Library has opened a Ubiquitous Library, the socalled Digital Talking Book Library, for the blind (including visually impaired people) and print disabled people.