Korean Immigrant Parents Are Validated in Their Perceptions of Deficits in Library Resources Supporting Korean Immigrants in Three Southeastern Suburban Counties

A Review of: Kim, Y., Kim, H. C. L., & Kim, J. (2023). Korean immigrants’ perceptions of library services and library multicultural programs for Asian communities before and during COVID-19. Frontiers in Education, 8, Article 1081143. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1081143 Objective – To explore Korean immigrant parents’ use and perceptions of public libraries and to analyze the resources and programs offered by public libraries that specifically support multiculturalism and the needs of immigrants. Design – Descriptive case study using a questionnaire for parents and additional analysis of library resources and programs. Setting – Three public library systems within three counties in a metropolitan area of a southeastern U.S. state. Subjects – 141 Korean immigrant parents, as well as library resources and 318 programs offered across the three public library systems. Methods – Respondents were recruited among parents of children enrolled in nonprofit summer camps at three local Korean American churches. The questionnaire included two open-ended questions and six closed questions and was completed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was analyzed with quantitative methods including Chi-square test and correlation and Spearman’s rank order correlation. SPSS was used to conduct an inferential analysis of the responses. The analyzed library resources and programs were divided into two different time periods; phase 1 or the “before COVID-19” phase consisted of data collection from January to April 2018, and phase 2 or the “during COVID-19” phase consisted of data collection from January to April 2021. The number of books and digital media in Korean, as well as the number of multicultural programs offered, were counted, and qualitative methods were used to classify the programs into categories for analysis. Main Results – Key results of the questionnaire include that 79% of the respondents resided in one of the three counties within the public library systems being analyzed, and 79% spent time at the library at ...