The Review Of The KMLA Library

From July 22nd to August 18th, I participated in GLPS camp and stayed in Korean Minjok Leadership Academy for 28 days. While spending almost a month in KMLA, I found many great features of the school, such as the unique structures of the buildings, high level education and warm-hearted teachers and students. Among them, one thing I was impressed so much was the library of KMLA.

I. Introduction

The KMLA library is called Mankyuong Library and it was built in 1996. At first, it was located in Dasan Guan. However, in 1998, KMLA rebuilt its library in Chungmoo Guan and improved it. Since then, the KMLA library is becoming bigger and bigger and changing more and more. Among the changes, the biggest change is that the Multimedia Room and the Essay Writing Room (논술실) were built a few years ago. The Essay Writing Room was built in 2010 and it was a place where KMLA students learn how to write good essays through some materials and refrence books. In fact, it was not that necessary for GLPS students.So we did not use it frequently.However, I think that the KMLA students may use it frequently. Besides, the Multimedia Room was built in 1999 and it was the place where the GLPS students could watch videos and movies. GLPS students could use it for doing class activities or watching movies during the weekend. Regardless of the number of GLPS students who used the two places of Mankyung library, they certainly made GLPS camp more convinient. Meanwhile, it is obvious that there WERE other features of the library which caught my attention. The things were...

II. The Books : 10/10

Truth be told, the books in the KMLA library were excellent. According to the introduction of it, the books in the library, including the English books, amount to more than 30 thousand. Moreover, there were even some books I really wanted to read like Dead Poets Society and On Writing . Furthermore, even if I never used the books as reference books during GLPS, some books about world history, like Horrible Histories series (In fact, some students of Class 14 had to borrow Horrible Histories in the library for their final history presentations since we did not have enough books), or scientific knowledge seemed very useful for students' research. Overall, all the books in the Mankyung library were awesome!

III. Convenience: 8/10

As I mentioned, the Essay Writing Room and the Multimedia Room helped students' study. Furthermore, there were some more facilities that could be helpful and useful for students. First, there were various kinds of magazines like Times, People, and Readers Digest which many teachers and students read. Second, we could do our assignments and almost everything related to our homework in the library. Let's say that you had to prepare for your history presentation. First, you should go to the library. Then, you do research with the computer in the library and some books. After you finish it, you start to write a script for your history presentation. Soon, you remember that your history teacher asked you to prepare handouts which contained some pictures, reference lists, and table of contents to make your audience understand your presentation better and persuade them. It's not a big deal because there is a nice computer right in front of you. Moreover, you can copy the handouts very easily by using the copy machine in the library. Then you finally finish preparing for the history presentation! It's so convenient, isn't it? If there was no library that have many things to help your study in KMLA, you might need to take your own reference books which were very heavy everywhere. Moreover, you might need to go to the 2nd floor of Choongmoo Guan to write your script and make a handout. Next, you might go to Dasan Guan to copy the handout. It might be really really unconvenient! The facilities and services of Mankyung library were really nice!

But I think they should increase the number of chairs, desks, and computers. There were a few chairs and desks that could afford only about 40 people (they were fewer than the desks and chiars of my school library) and only three computers while there were so many people who needed to use the library.

IV. Overall.... : 9/10

Truth be told, the Mankyung library is one of the best librarys I have been during my whole life. The numerous books in the library attracted me and many facilities in it, such as some computers and a copy machine, made my life at GLPS more convenient. And there's no doubt that the KMLA students, who will return to their school after a few days, will also use the library frequently, as well.

But, there was a problem I found during the GLPS camp. GLPS students did not know much about the library. Many students did not know how to apply for the first self-study at the library (somebody even did not know the service's existence.), how to borrow books and so on. Therefore, I think KMLA needed to advertise more about its library to the GLPS students.