Study on the User`s Cognition of Public Libraries` Service for Senior Citizen : Through Survey of Senior Citizens` Welfare Center Users

As Korea enters into an aging society, the problem of information literacy against senior citizens is becoming a socioeconomic issue in Korea. Since most of the public libraries in Korea are already equipped with infrastructures for information dissemination, they may be able to solve this problem most effectively among public organizations. In this study in order to investigate senior citizen`s general understanding of public library, cognizance of the programs for them. their information request levels, preferred contents, information seeking behavior, etc., 176 participants in educational programs at two senior citizens` welfare center were interviewed and surveyed with structured questionnaires. The statistical analysis of the surveyed data has shown that the senior citizen`s general understanding of public library was very poor and that those under 75 years old preferred educational programs and those over 75 preferred recreational ones. Recommendations were made based on the results of the analysis.