Research on Utilization Rate According to Access and Awareness of Children's Libraries in the Metropolitan Area

After the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, society has been experiencing new consumption patterns based on advanced core technologies, with significant changes also occurring in the cultural industry.Accordingly, the government has started implementing SOC policies to expand basic infrastructure to improve livelihoods.As a result, the demand for public libraries as core facilities is increasing, with facilities being expanded.While children's libraries are increasingly emphasized, their usage is lower than expected due to children having difficulties using them.Children's libraries are also still scarce compared to other living SOC facilities.Therefore, this study aims to analyze the awareness and accessibility of children's libraries through an urban hierarchy analysis based on their locations to establish a foundation for determining future locations for children's libraries.Four national and public children's libraries opened in Seoul after 2010 were selected to analyze the utilization of children's libraries based on urban hierarchy analysis.The accessibility and awareness of children's libraries were analyzed using axial maps based on space syntax.The main findings are as follows.1) The children's libraries analyzed in this study were small, which made them less recognizable in the urban hierarchy.2) The accessibility and awareness of children's libraries appeared to affect their usage rates.These aspects are significant for children with low spatial awareness, so these factors should be considered when determining the location of children's libraries.3) The usage of children's libraries can be influenced by the ratio of functions in nearby areas, so their utilization will be high if their ratio to residences is high.