An empirical analysis on the present situation of government publications and the operation of the publications in library

정부간행물의 출판현황과 도서관의 정부간행물 운영실태분석

Government Publications are published to keep records of governmental activities and performances. In a rapidly changing information-oriented society, it is badly required for the operation system of government publications and a library to be effectively managed with government publications for satisfying 'right to know' of people and improving the obligation of government to 'let people know.' Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to analyze such five research items as the situation of the publication and distribution of, government publications, the operation system of the publications in library, the number of publications regarding secondary information sources for the publications, and the legal deposit of the publications in the National Library, in order to proceed with a subject as to how much the government publication is satisfying 'right to know' of people. The research findings were suggested as follow : 1) Despite the fact that the publication of government publications has been gradually increased every year in numbers and kinds, it is unfortunately pointed out that the publications, distributions and sellings of them were not well organized and systematic. That is, the government publications had not been published more than 1.47% of all publications in number. Moreover, more than the half of the publications were non-periodically or annually published. To make the matter worse, it was not easy to get an access to the publications because of the publications not to be sold. 2) It a n.0, ppears that people could not use the publications efficiently because the library and administrative document office did not pay sufficient attention to public relations for all sorts of government publications. Not only that, there were not enough numbers of publications regarding such secondary information sources as bibliography, index and catalog. A speedy searching capacity for the information gave rise to another serious problem which the government publications could not be effectively used. 3) It is legally stated that all sorts of government publication should be deposited to the National Libraries. However, the law was not properly put into force because of lack of understanding of government agencies about the law.